


i had the time of my life (fighting dragons with you)

by slowklancing (notanannoyingfangirl)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Also Keith is a Nintendo gay, Alternate Universe - College/University, Alternate Universe - Tabletop Gaming, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Keith takes great offense at Monsters and Mana being considered a nerd game, Kinda, Lance thinks he's "too cool" for nerd games, M/M, Monsters and Mana is basically D&D 5th Edition, Oblivious Keith (Voltron), Oblivious Lance (Voltron), Pining Keith (Voltron), Pining Lance (Voltron), Slow Burn, and Lance is a PlayStation bi, basically they're both pining and they're both oblivious to the other's pining, except he really isn't
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-04
Updated: 2018-07-04
Packaged: 2019-06-05 06:51:31
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 21,196
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15165020
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/notanannoyingfangirl/pseuds/slowklancing
Summary: “Oh and what are you playing as, Mr. High-and-Mighty?” Lance couldn’t help but ask, pulling his feet back down from the table so he could reach across and poke Keith in the shoulder.Keith’s eyes seemed to be glued to the finger that touched him, as he reached up to bat Lance’s hand away. “I’m playing as the rogue.”And, God, Lance wished he had said a lame class, but rogues were cool as fuck.“At least tell me you didn’t pick Beast-Master as your subclass,” Keith said, letting out a long-suffering sigh. “The animal companions are useless.”Ha! Finally something that Lance had done right!“I picked Sharpshooter,” Lance replied smuggly.// Somehow Lance gets roped into joining a Monsters and Mana gaming group that meets every Friday night at college, which he’s sure isn’t going to be his kind of thing. Except, apparently, Monsters and Mana is kind of really freaking cool.





	i had the time of my life (fighting dragons with you)

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: Hey everyone, so here I am again. Another day, another fandom. This fic is… incredibly near and dear to my heart so I hope that you all like it. After hearing that Voltron was having a D&D themed episode, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to resist getting caught up on the show! Somehow, I knew that I needed to write a D&D AU for Klance, and this is the result. 
> 
> So a couple of notes about the fic itself: First of all, most of their characters’ names come from the 80s version of the cartoon with the exception of Katie/Pidge and Lance. Lance’s last name in the fic is Álvarez, my personal favorite last name for him. I used female pronouns Katie/Pidge. And they all go to college together, so some age gaps are different from the show for obvious reasons. Some parts of their campaign follow along with the plot of Voltron, itself, but some parts were invented by me. Parts of this fic were definitely inspired by real experiences that I have had (am I projecting onto Keith or Lance, the world will never know), but at the same time, every college/university/school is different so the school experiences had by the characters of this fic may not be universal experiences. Oh, and Monsters and Mana is basically just Dungeons and Dragons: Fifth Edition because that’s the rules system I’m most comfortable with! 
> 
> I’ve had so much fun working on this fic, I’m almost sad that it’s over. At 21,000 words, it is officially the longest fic that I’ve ever written by myself! 
> 
> As always, I am not claiming any rights over Voltron or its characters. The title of this piece is from a Taylor Swift song. 
> 
> If you like it, be sure to leave a comment or press the kudos button as they always make my day <3 
> 
> \- notanannoyingfangirl

 

“Hey guys,” Katie Holt called, making both Lance and Hunk pause in the hallway outside of their Computer Tech class. 

“Hey, Katie, what’s up?” Lance greeted, raising a hand to wave her over to where he and Hunk were standing.

The girl was cool, Lance had to give her that. Katie had been in the Freshman Orientation classes with Hunk, since they had similar majors, and anyone who was a friend of Hunk’s was a friend of Lance’s, so the pair had just kind of adopted her, taking their duo to a trio. Not to mention that she was wicked smart, anyone who skipped two years of high school and started college early had to be.

Katie skidded to a stop beside them, adjusting her grip on her laptop bag. “How do you guys feel about Monsters and Mana?”

“Like the tabletop game?” Hunk asked. 

“Isn’t that, like, for nerds?” Lance asked.

Katie gave him an unimpressed look that seemed to say  _you just came out of a Comp_ _uter Tech class and are planning to major in Aerospace engineering and Monsters and Mana is where you draw the line on being nerdy_? Because Katie can totally say all of that with her face, Lance swears.

“Right,” Lance gulped, “not just for nerds.” 

What? Sue him, Katie Holt was scary as fuck.

“Well, anyways,” Katie continued, ignoring him, “my brother is organizing a new campaign and we’re trying to find out if anyone wants to play. Are you in?”

“Heck yeah,” Hunk enthused, smacking Lance on the back a little harder than strictly necessary. 

Lance shot a betrayed look at Hunk out of the corner of his eye, but Hunk ignored him. “When is it?” Lance asked, running through a list of possible excuses he could make to get out of going. After all, he was definitely too cool to play a grown-up board game of pretend. That sounded totally lame, right? Right?

“We were thinking to have the first session next Friday,” Katie said, “but we can hang out sometime this week if you need help creating your characters.”

Lance opened his mouth to explain that he was absolutely sure he would be able to figure out how to create a character for a stupid nerd game, but Hunk jumped in to say “that would be great!” before Lance had the chance to open his mouth.

Which was… probably actually for the best. 

“Okay, I’ll meet you in the lounge tomorrow. I’ll grab the books and everything from Matt when I see him later,” Katie said, steadily picking up speed until she was practically jogging towards her next class, “bye guys,” she waved before disappearing around a corner.

Lance waited until she was safely out of earshot before turning to glare at his best friend. “Hunk, buddy,” he groaned, “now we actually have to go and play this game every Friday night instead of, like, going to parties and stuff. You just ruined the whole point of college!”

Hunk rolled his eyes as Lance dramatically waved his arms around. “It sounds fun,” he said, “and Katie’s our friend. If she wants us there, then we should go. Besides I’ve wanted to try Monsters and Mana since I was a kid but could never find a group,” Hunk rubbed his hands together eagerly. “Should I bring snacks? I feel like I should bring snacks.”

“Dude, that’s what you’re worried about?” Lance grumbled, “not the fact that we’re going to be single forever?” When Hunk chose not to answer him, Lance signed loudly. “Yes, you should bring snacks,” he agreed, “and if you’re dragging me along with you, you better make me chocolate-chocolate chip cookies.”

Hunk grinned at him, “deal!”

A few seconds passed in silence before Lance spoke up again, never one to let a silence linger. “So what do we know about Katie’s brother? Like is he cool?”

Hunk frowned, “I’m not sure. She’s mentioned him a few times. He goes to school here and is a few years older than her. I think he’s an upperclassman.”

“An upperclassman who apparently has nothing better to do on a Friday night than play Monsters and Mana with his little sister and her friends,” Lance adds, “so he doesn’t get any cool-cred just because he’s older.”

“Cool-cred is so not a thing, bro,” Hunk said, shaking his head slightly. “Besides, just try to keep an open mind about the game, okay? Maybe you’ll have fun.”

“Maybe,” Lance agreed grudgingly, although silently he added  _or maybe not_.

<<< >>>

After his World History class (one of his mandatory core requirements) let out the next day, Lance found himself heading back in the direction of his dorm building when he normally would have gone to the Bistro for a cup of coffee while he finished up the last of his homework so he could have a free weekend. Instead, he was meeting with Hunk, Katie, and the mysterious Matt Holt to work on their characters for Matt’s Monsters and Mana campaign. And as much as Lance would hate to admit it, he couldn’t help but feel nervous. He was used to spending his free time doing things he was good at, like, video games or flirting with cute girls or guys (because yes, he was totally good at flirting, Lance told the voice in his head that sounded suspiciously like Hunk). 

He just didn’t like being dragged out of his comfort zone. That’s all. 

Lance entered his building through the side door so that he could swing back down past the room he shared with Hunk so he could drop off his school books and grab his laptop before making his way to the lounge that he, Hunk, and Katie had basically claimed as their own. 

It was a small living-room-like-space at the far back of the dorm building, that almost everyone else avoided because the two living rooms up at the front of the dorm both had TVs and all this room had was a questionable couch, a few equally questionable armchairs, and a wooden dining room table. Like, why was that even necessary? They had a dining hall for Christ’s sake.

Katie and Hunk were already there by the time Lance strolled in, sitting at two of the armchairs which had been pulled up to the table. Another person was there, too, and the family resemblance was so clear that Lance knew without a doubt that the figure stretched out across the couch with a pile of what looked like textbooks but couldn’t possibly be textbooks had to be Matt Holt. 

Katie glanced up, pushing her wire-rim glasses up on her nose. “Lance! Perfect, you’re right on time. Lance, this is my brother, Matt. Matt, Lance is in Computer Tech with me and Hunk,” she said, waving a hand between them. 

Katie’s brother, Matt, pushed himself off the couch, meeting Lance in the middle of the room to shake his hand. Matt was significantly taller than Katie, but that wasn’t saying much, even if he did share her shoulder length brown hair and round glasses. 

“Hi,” Matt said, “so I heard that Katie roped you into playing with us.”

“Uh… yeah. It sounds… fun,” Lance said awkwardly, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. 

Matt chuckled at whatever he seemed to read on Lance’s face. “It’s fine, Katie said you were a little nervous and didn’t know what to expect. I’ll ease you guys into it, I promise. Just because Katie and I have been gaming since we were kids with our dad doesn’t mean everyone has been. In fact, I think a few of our group members are going to be new to the game.” 

“Yeah, and it looks super fun, man,” Hunk piped up, pulling his head up from one of the textbook-but-not-textbook things. “You can be, like, whatever you want. There are so many options.” 

“Like what?” Lance asked, moving closer into the room so that he could look at the book Hunk was holding. 

“Do you play fantasy video games?” Matt asked, making his way back towards the couch to grab another one of the books and a notebook. 

“Sometimes,” Lance allowed, “but I usually like space games better.” 

“Okay so you get to create your own character that is a combination of a fantasy race and a fantasy class. So your race is going to be the species that you are, like elf or dwarf or human, and your class is basically your job and the role you fulfill in the party,” Matt explained. 

Lance studied the pages that Hunk was holding the book open to, an illustrated picture of a green-skinned humanoid taking up one half of the page. 

“Typically a party will want to have at least one person fulfilling a specific role, but since you three are going to be the first to make your characters, you can pretty much make whatever you want,” Matt continued, sitting down in the armchair next to Hunk. He opened the book that he had brought over, which seemed to be another copy of the book that Hunk was flipping through and gestured for Lance to sit across from him.

“Wait, wait, wait. The three of us are the first to make characters? What about you?” Lance asked as he half-walked, half-jogged to the other side of the table and threw himself (very gracefully, thank you) into the armchair next to Katie. 

Matt chuckled, “I’m actually not playing as a character. I’m filling a role called the Game Master. I’m in charge of telling the story and taking on the role for all of the monsters that you guys are going to face.”

“Okay,” Lance nodded slowly. “So what do I have to do?” 

Matt slid the book across the table to him. “First, let's find out what kind of character draws you in.”

< < < > > >

Okay, so Lance will give this to the nerds. They sure know how to design an intense game. The mechanics of Monsters and Mana are confusing at best and overwhelming at worst. But Hunk got super into the character creation, and once Matt helped to explain some more information about the setting and the world they would be playing in, Lance couldn’t help but start to feel kind of excited about the game as well. 

Once he got over all the confusing numbers and different shaped dice, it was fun to figure out what kind of person Lance wanted his alter-ego to be. He ended up settling on an elf ranger, because a bow and arrow was pretty much as close as he could get to a sniper rifle (which is what he really wanted) without being a super complicated class (like Katie). He also dumped more points into Charisma than was strictly necessary to play a ranger because, duh, obviously Lance’s character had to be both attractive and charming with the ladies (or gents) that they came across in their travels. Hunk and Katie rolled their eyes at that, but hey. Diplomacy was apparently an option. Lance at least wanted to have it in his back pocket in case his bow-and-arrow thing wasn’t enough to save his character’s skin. 

Katie made a dwarf artificer (which was apparently some kind of inventor?) named Pidge Gunderson that wanted to get revenge on the main villains of the campaign, the Galra Empire, for kidnapping her brother (Matt had looked a little personally offended at that particular detail of her backstory). While Hunk had made a human cleric who, in Hunk’s own words, was “going to heal people through the power of hugs”. 

“Alright, you guys,” Matt said with a wide grin as he pushed away from the table. “I think that’s everything. Just try to come up with a backstory and a name before the first session.” He glanced down at his phone, sighing when he saw the time. “Okay, it’s late and I have to go to work in the morning, I’ll see you guys here next Friday for the first session.”

“Bye Matt,” Hunk and Lance called after him, waving, while Katie hopped up to accompany her brother. 

“See you guys tomorrow,” she called, scooping up the books (which Lance had learned were called  _The Player’s Handbook_ , see he totally listens!) so that all Lance and Hunk were left with were their laptops and their newly-filled character sheets. 

“Okay, Hunk,” Lance allowed, “the game seems pretty cool.” 

Hunk pumped one of his fists in victory. “I knew it!” He exclaimed. “I knew that you would come around!”

Lance rolled his eyes but couldn’t help the the small grin that tugged at the corner of his mouth to answer the wide smile Hunk was giving him. 

“So, dude, what do you want your backstory to be?” Hunk asked as he pushed away from the table and slipped his laptop back into his bag. Lance followed his example and began to pack up, mulling over all the lore that Matt had told them (and promised to text them later so they would have a physical copy they could refer to). 

“I don’t know,” Lance admitted. “And I don’t know what I want his name to be either. I actually didn’t realize how much work went into customizing our characters.”

“I knew we got to make our own character, but I didn’t know we had to have a whole backstory,” Hunk said. “Matt must be a pretty serious game master.”

Lance swallowed nervously, “I hope he’s not  _too_ serious about it, but he seemed cool.”

“True,” Hunk agreed. “And he said the other players are all nice, too. Have you met any of them?”

Lance ran over the other names that Matt had mentioned in his mind. Allura Altea, Takashi Shirogane, and Keith Kogane. He wasn’t sure about the latter two, but “Allura was one of the tour guides at the open house I went to over the summer, I think. She’s really pretty.”

Hunk smacked Lance on the arm lightly, “just don’t make it weird, dude.” 

Lance sputtered. “I would never!”

“Sure, buddy.”

< < < > > >

Lance spent the better part of the next week ignoring his homework to hang out with Katie and Hunk in the back lounge and work on their characters’ backstories. Katie explained how the setting they were using was one of Matt’s own creation so they could feel free to create their own towns or people to belong to and Matt would write them into the story. The main concept they were working with was that the world was made of four main civilized races: the Humans, the Elves, the Dwarves, and the Galra (a cousin race to the elves). One of the civilized races, the Galra turned against the other four and started to take over their territories. The Dwarves and Elves were the first to fall, and the Humans are the only ones left to fight against the Galra. The players should all have their own reasons for wanting to help save the world from the Galra. 

Katie’s character, Pidge, was trying to find her brother who was kidnapped by the Galra as he had been a member of a resistance working against them. To do this, she wants to find the resistance her brother had been a part of and join them. 

Hunk’s character, Garrett, was trying to be proactive. He had seen what the Galra had done to the Elf and Dwarf lands and had no intention of allowing that to happen to the Human lands. 

And after many, many late nights, Lance had finally settled on a backstory for his character. His character, Varadero (who was named after a beach near Lance’s hometown in Cuba but no one had to know that) was from a small Elven village on the border of the Elven and Galra lands. He had a large family and was the youngest child. His older siblings had grown up to have children of their own (similar to his family in real life). Except, when the Galra attacked his village, Lance’s character was the only member of his family to survive - and that was only because a human cleric (Hunk’s character!) had found him bleeding out and saved him. 

When they Skyped Matt on Katie’s laptop to explain their backstories, Matt had grinned like a maniac and told them he was proud of them for working together and giving their characters a reason to know each other already. 

“I’ve talked to Keith and Shiro, too. They plan on having their characters share a backstory as well. I’m not sure about Allura, yet.” 

The trio chatted with Matt about their characters a little bit longer, before Katie started yawning and complaining about some coding exercise she had to finish before bed, so they bid Matt goodbye and called it a night. 

“Okay, remember, the first session is tomorrow in the lounge at four. Maybe four thirty depending on if Matt’s ethics class runs late,” Katie reminded them, as they reached the stairs that separated their floor from Katie’s room down in the basement. 

“We know,” Lance groaned, jokingly pushing Katie towards the stairs, “you’ve only told us, like, five times already.”

Katie bit her lip, “it’s just… it’s always been me and Matt and our dad. Or Matt and his friends. It’s nice to have some of my friends get involved in the gaming group, too,” she admitted quietly.

Lance reached over and ruffled her hair. “Aw, I didn’t know we meant that much to you.”

“Shut up,” Katie mumbled, swatting at Lance’s hand.

Hunk reached over to pull Katie into a hug, snagging Lance with his other hand, “group hug!” 

“Can’t… breathe…” Lance gasped, making Katie laugh.

Finally, after a few more painful seconds in which Lance swore that he felt a rib crack, Hunk released both of them. 

“Okay, I really have to go finish my coding exercise, but tomorrow. The lounge. Be there.”

“Or be square!” Lance hollered after her, smirking when he saw the annoyed look on Katie’s face.

< < < > > >

“Hey, Keith,” a familiar voice called, and Keith glanced up from the fantasy novel he was reading to watch his older adopted brother Shiro drop down onto the couch next to him. 

Keith raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, “I gave you the spare key to my single dorm in case of an emergency,” he said slowly, “so what’s the emergency?” 

“That Matt’s new Monsters and Mana campaign starts tomorrow and we still haven’t finished making our characters,” Shiro offered half-heartedly. 

“But we have the basics down, we could have done the rest of it on our own,” Keith said, but despite his words he found himself sticking his folded post-it note bookmark back into his book and tossing it onto the second-hand coffee table in front of him. 

“But that’s boring,” Shiro sighed, “and Matt’s FaceTiming Katie, Lance, and Hunk about their characters tonight so he couldn’t hang out with me.”

“So I’m just the second best option,” Keith sighed. “I see how it is.” 

Shiro punched him lightly on the shoulder before reaching down to pull his black gaming binder out if his backpack, flipping it open to the half-filled-in character sheet that he and Keith had abandoned a few days ago in favor of kicking each others’ asses on Mario Kart. 

“I told Matt we wanted our characters to be tied together through our backstory,” Keith said, as he crossed the room to grab his own red gaming binder and copy of  _The Player’s Handbook_.

“Awesome,” Shiro said, as he rummaged through his bag for a pencil, finally pulling one out in triumph.

Keith dropped back down onto the couch next to his brother, flipping through his binder until he found his own sheets for Friday’s session.

“So I think I finally settled on what I want to be,” Keith said, “and I talked to Matt about it earlier. He said it’d be cool.” 

“What are you thinking?” Shiro asked, reaching a hand up to run it through the dyed white streak in his hair.

“I want to play as… basically a Half-Elf, but instead of being a Half-Elf, he’s Half-Galra. Matt wrote up some custom stats for me.”

Shiro sucked in a breath. “That’s such a cool character concept. Does my character know?” 

Keith nodded slowly, “I was hoping maybe your character could help him keep it a secret. At least until a good dramatic moment to reveal it to the rest of the party, you know?” 

“Okay, yeah. Wait. I actually think I know how we could tie our characters together. I was thinking that my character could be a former prisoner of the Galra, but he escaped. Maybe your character helped save him.” 

Keith tapped his pencil against his chin, “maybe my character was undercover in the Galra empire, like trying to find out their weakness or something. Maybe he could be a part of the resistance that Katie’s character is looking for.”

“And that’s why I was captured,” Shiro nodded in agreement, his eyes wide with excitement, “because I was a member of the resistance and the Galra wanted to get more information out of me, but then you broke me out before they could learn any vital information.” 

Keith nodded in agreement, scribbling furiously onto his paper. “We have to call Matt,” he said, “this is perfect.”

< < < > > >

“I have the best players,” Matt sighed dreamily, as he sunk into the armchair at the end of the table.

Keith looked up from the spot that he had claimed next to Shiro (who was sitting immediately to Matt’s right). “You liked the backstory?” He asked. He and Shiro had called Matt the night before, but the other boy hadn’t answered, so instead they typed everything out and texted it to him. 

“I have the perfect plan for this campaign,” Matt said. “I think it will be the best one yet.”

“And considering the space campaign you ran for me and Dad a few years ago, that’s saying a lot,” Katie called as she strolled into the lounge, her laptop open and perched precariously on one of her arms.

“You better not let Dad see you carrying your laptop like that,” Matt scolded, “after he paid a fortune for it.”

Katie rolled her eyes, but she set the laptop carefully down on the table before climbing over the back of one of the larger armchairs. 

Keith had only met Matt’s sister a handful of times, but Katie was cool, and he knew that Shiro was fond of her, so he nodded hello to her and made a mental note to at least try and be friendly. 

“So who else is coming exactly?” Keith asked Matt, except it was Katie who answered him.

“Two of my friends from Computer Tech, Hunk and Lance, they should be getting here soon. Oh, and Allura.” 

Keith didn’t recognize the names of Katie’s friends, which wasn’t surprising seeing that he didn’t really know her, but he did know Allura. They had met a few times because she and Shiro had been tour guides together as their on-campus jobs over the summer. 

“So I’m the rogue and Shiro’s a paladin. What’s everyone else playing as?” Keith asked, already running through the best classes they could have in their party through his mind. 

“I’m playing as an artificer,” Katie answered, “Lance is playing as a ranger, and Hunk is playing as a cleric. I’m… actually not sure about Allura.”

“Well at least we have a healer. Campaigns without a cleric suck ass,” Keith commented. 

“Language,” Shiro muttered, and across the table Katie rolled her eyes.

“I’m not five,” she informed him, “you don’t have to watch your mouths around me.”

As if sensing the direction the topic of conversation was entering into, Matt pushed away his notes and folded his hands on the table in front of him. “Allura will be playing as a sorceress.” 

“That’s a well-rounded group,” Shiro commented, “although we don’t have a lot of tanks.” 

Keith was about to comment on the lack of tanks in the party when the doors to the lounge were flung open and an unfamiliar, cocky voice announced “hello party people!” 

Keith glanced over towards the lounge doors, taking in the newcomers. The first one through the doors was a large, friendly looking guy with a wide grin on his face. He had the dark complexion of a Pacific Islander, and his black hair was tied away from his face with a headband. 

The second guy must have been the one who had spoken, because his mouth was still hanging partially open. He was tall and lean, with warm brown skin that seemed to almost perfectly match the color of his hair. His eyes, though… they were a bright enough blue that Keith could see them even from across the room. He was cute, and exactly Keith’s type. At least, he was until he opened his mouth. 

“So this is the place to be on a Friday night, I hear,” the stranger (Keith wasn’t sure if this is ‘Lance’ or ‘Hunk’) said as they dropped into the seat next to Katie. Which put them directly across from Keith. And goddammit he was even cuter up close, flashing a smile that revealed fucking dimples! He slid his gaze away from Matt (who he had apparently been addressing) to make eye contact with Keith. “The name’s Lance.”

“Um… hi,” Keith replied. After a second he realized that Lance was probably still waiting for an introduction so he pointed to his own chest (unnecessarily). “I’m Keith.”

“And I’m Shiro,” his brother added, “it’s nice to meet you. Any friend of Katie’s is a friend of ours.”

“Oh, and I’m Hunk,” the other stranger said, slipping into the seat on the other side of Lance. “I brought cookies,” he added, sliding a plastic container of… were those homemade chocolate chocolate chip cookies? Who even had the time to make homemade cookies in college? And where on earth had he managed to find an oven?

“Yes!” Katie exclaimed, grabbing the container of cookies like a rabid animal and shoving one into her mouth. She moaned around a mouthful of crumbs. “Hunk, you are a food god. You are officially in charge of all game night snacks.”

Keith glanced back down at his character sheet, busing himself by rereading the rogue stats. He had never been one for small talk. He knew it would be fine once they started gaming, but until then… 

“So Katie said that you two are in her Computer Tech class,” Shiro said, addressing the newcomers and finding a way to make civil small talk like a normal person.

“Yeah, actually, Katie and I met last semester during the Freshman Intro class since we both took the one about building robots,” Hunk said. 

“And how did you two meet?” Shiro asked, gesturing between Hunk and Lance.

“Practically in the womb,” Lance interjected, “Hunk and I have known each other, like, forever.”

“That’s such a gross way to describe it though,” Katie said, wrinkling her nose. 

“Would you rather I describe Hunk as my best bro?” Lance asked, sounding completely serious even when discussing something absolutely ridiculous.

“Bro,” Hunk whispered.

“Ugh, no, that’s even worse,” Katie sighed, flopping back dramatically in her chair. “What did I do to deserve being treated like this?”

“I think it’s called being born a literal genius and leaving the rest of your peers behind to come hang with the big kids,” Matt teased his sister, earning him a rude hand gesture from Katie. 

As the joking and teasing went on, Keith couldn’t help the pit of worry that was forming in his stomach. If this was any kind of foreshadowing for the way the game would be going, it probably wasn’t going to be the serious campaign that Keith was hoping it would be.

< < < > > >

For all that Lance had worried about spending his Friday night playing Monsters and Mana, he had to admit that maybe it wouldn’t be that bad. He shot another glance at the boy sitting across from him (hopefully subtlety so that Hunk and Katie wouldn’t notice and tease him about it). But okay first of all, the guy had a haircut that was basically a freaking  _mullet_ which should mean that he was totally  _not_ attractive except for the fact that he totally  _was_ and okay maybe Lance had been planning to use most of his flirting powers on Allura (who still had yet to arrive), but he was beginning to think that maybe flirting with Keith (do people even still name their kids Keith?) could be fun too.

“Alright,” Matt clapped his hands together down at the end of the table, “Allura just texted that she’s here, I’ll go let her in and then we can get started.” 

“So have either of you ever played a tabletop game before,” the older guy sitting next to mullet-man asked, obviously addressing Lance and Hunk. 

Lance quickly flickered his eyes away from Keith to look at Shiro. “I haven’t,” he admitted. “But how hard can it be, right?” He asked, trying to instill some confidence that he wasn’t really feeling into his voice, as Lance leaned back in the armchair and propped his feet up onto the table. 

Keith snorted quietly from the other side of the table, and Lance felt his eyes drawn towards the other boy as if of their own accord. “What’s so funny?” He asked, his voice coming out squeakier than he would have liked. 

“Nothing,” Keith said quietly, “just that Monsters and Mana can be kind of an intense game for new players.”

Lance waved a hand lazily in the air, “we’ll be fine, right Hunk?”

“And Katie said that she would help us if we get confused about how to play our characters,” Hunk added helpfully, “especially since I’m playing a spellcaster, which are apparently one of the harder classes to play.”

“They are,” Keith allowed, making Lance narrow his eyes.

“Well I’m playing as the ranger,” Lance bragged, “that has to be hard, too. Right?” He asked, wagging his eyebrows overdramatically. 

Keith frowned slightly, and Lance had a bad feeling about what he was going to say next. “Um… no. Ranger is actually one of the easiest classes in the game.”

Well, fuck.

“Oh and what are you playing as, Mr. High-and-Mighty?” Lance couldn’t help but ask, pulling his feet back down from the table so he could reach across and poke Keith in the shoulder. 

Keith’s eyes seemed to be glued to the finger that touched him, as he reached up to bat Lance’s hand away. “I’m playing as the rogue.”

And, God, Lance wished he had said a lame class, but rogues were cool as fuck. 

“At least tell me you didn’t pick Beast-Master as your subclass,” Keith said, letting out a long-suffering sigh. “The animal companions are useless.”

Ha! Finally something that Lance had done right! 

“I picked Sharpshooter,” Lance replied smuggly. 

“Okay, you two,” Shiro interrupted, “that’s enough.” 

Keith crossed his arms across his chest and oh my god, was he pouting? He was literally pouting. That was adorable. 

“I was just trying to make sure that our party is going to be well-rounded,” Keith muttered. 

Shiro leveled a glare at him, and Keith snapped his mouth closed. 

Luckily, they were spared from any further lectures from Shiro by the arrival of Matt and Allura. Lance had been right, Allura was the pretty tour guide who Lance had met over the summer when he had came to campus for orientation. 

“Hi, everyone,” Allura said, giving the group a small wave, as she followed Matt into the room, obviously scanning for an empty seat. When she saw the open seat next to Keith, she made her way towards it quickly, spreading a large collection of notebooks across the table in front of her as if to claim it. “Okay, I know you and Shiro,” she said, craning her neck to address Matt and Shiro. “Keith, we’ve met a few times.”

“Hey, Allura,” Keith greeted, and Lance watched as he scooted his stuff over on the table so that she would have more room.

“You must be Katie,” Allura said, pointing directly at the younger girl, “Matt’s talked a lot about you.” 

“Don’t give her any big ideas,” Matt chided. 

Allura ignored him, turning her attention to the two seats directly in front of her. “Ah, Lance. You were in my orientation group, I believe.” 

“Hello, pretty lady,” Lance said, in the smoothest voice he could muster, making Allura groan good-naturedly and roll her eyes. 

“Yep. Definitely remember you, so that means you must be Hunk.”

“Did you hear that,” Lance stage-whispered to Katie, “she remembers me.”

“I’m not sure that’s a good thing,” Katie teased, but there was no venom to her tone. 

“Alright guys, now that everyone is here,” Matt declared, clapping his hands together to silence the whispered conversations around the table and bring everyone’s attentions to him, “we can begin!”

“Yes!” Katie exclaimed, pumping one of her firsts in the air, before falling silent when Matt glared at her.

“Our story begins as all good stories begin: in a tavern. Each of you, for your own reasons, have found your way to the mostly-human town of Arus, near the border of the Human empire and the now Galra-dominated Elven empire. Would any of you like to describe what your characters are currently doing?” As Matt spoke, he waved his hands around enthusiastically, and okay, Lance could get into this. 

“Sven and Akira are sitting in one of the back booths, keeping their cloaks over their faces and trying to avoid drawing any attention to themselves,” Shiro declared, after sharing a meaningful look with Keith. 

“Well Pidge is going to go sit at the bar, maybe she can find out some information from the bartender?” Katie asked.

“Roll a charisma check to see if you can get him to talk.”

Katie picked up one of her dice (the one she had told Hunk and Lance was called the d20 because it had twenty sides, which seems like a lot of sides for a dice to have, but what did Lance know?) and rolled it gently onto the table. She wrinkled her nose at whatever the number was and turned back to face Matt. “A seven,” she sighed. 

“Okay so you try and strike up a conversation with the bartender but he doesn’t seem to notice you because he’s distracted by looking at the elven woman sitting at the other end of the bar.”

“Oh that’s me!” Allura said, “okay so Fara orders a glass of wine and looks around the room to see if anyone looks like they could help her fight against the Galra.”

“You notice two groups that seem as though they might help you, two heavily-armored figures mostly obscured by black cloaks sitting in the back of the bar, and two rowdy figures sitting close by, an elven man with a bow and a human man wearing some set of robes.”

“That’s us,” Lance whispered (loudly) to Hunk. 

“So I totally notice the hot elf chick checking me out and I go up to the bar to talk to her,” Lance declared. “I want to lean against the bar and say ‘So do you come here often?’”

Keith groaned from his position across the table, but Allura merely rolled her eyes. “‘I’m afraid I’m not from around here. But my home has been destroyed by the Galra.’”

“‘Oh shit, I’m sorry, little lady. Is there anything I can do to help?’” Lance asked, trying to imagine like he was really talking to Allura in some old-fashioned tavern rather than just chatting in the dorm’s crummy lounge. 

“‘Actually… maybe…’” Allura started to say, but Matt cut her off.

“While you guys are having this conversation, the door bursts open and a small halfling comes running in. ‘There are Galra here!’ He cries. ‘They’re looking for some escaped prisoner. If we don’t turn him over, they’re going to start killing hostages!’” When he speaks as the halfling civilian, Matt’s voice gets high-pitched and squeaky, like a boy who hadn’t hit puberty yet, making Lance snicker quietly. 

“‘We have to help them!’ Fara exclaims, grabbing onto - sorry, what’s your character’s name?” Allura asked.

“Varadero,” Lance answered, “but he goes by Var.”

“Okay so Fara grabs onto Var’s arm and pulls him outside with her.” 

“‘Woah, woah, woah, crazy elf lady. We can’t just go out there and take on a whole squad of Galra soldiers with hostages. Pretty sure that’s a good way to get ourselves killed!’”

“‘Uh hey, Lance - I mean Var, are you okay? Why are you being manhandled?’” Hunk said, “and then Garrett gets up to follow both of them so that Allura - I mean Fara - doesn’t just drag his friend outside and into danger.”

“‘Did you say the Galra?’ Pidge cries, jumping off her barstool so that she can press the halfling for more details,” Katie narrates. 

“Sven is going to approach the elven woman yelling about helping the hostages. ‘You won’t be alone in fighting the Galra, my companion and I will join you.’” Shiro said.

“Akira trails behind Sven, but he doesn’t look too happy about it,” Keith said.

“I bet Akira never looks happy about anything. He probably has resting bitch face.” Lance teased.

“Well at least he doesn’t have resting annoying face like you do,” Keith shot back.

“Guys!” Shiro groaned. “That’s enough.” 

< < < > > >

Other than a few more mostly-teasing, sometimes insulting jabs from Lance, Keith had to admit that the first session of the game went pretty well. The party had joined forces to defeat the Galra bandits who were looking for an escaped Galra prisoner (Shiro’s character, but the rest of the party didn’t know that yet), and they had freed the hostages that the bandits had taken in the town square. After that, the party was approached by an older merchant who wanted to hire their services as guards for his caravan which needed to pass along a road that the Galra occasionally patrolled. All it all, it had been fun. Sure, a lot of the time Lance, Hunk, and Allura weren’t totally sure of what they were doing and they needed help figuring which dice to use or whether they still had all their spell slots or not, but they had actually managed to work together fairly well as a team. 

Given his initial opinion of a few of the new members (or, well, really just one of them), Keith was pleasantly surprised with how everything turned out. 

Which he admitted to Shiro once Katie, Lance, Hunk, and Allura had called it a night, leaving Keith and Shiro to help Matt carry his plastic tubs of figures and tiles back out to his car. 

“See, you were worried for no reason,” Shiro said, “although you could try and get along better with Lance. There’s no need for endless bickering.”

Keith waved him off, “he’s just obviously one of those guys that has a stick up their ass about games being beneath him.”

Shiro muttered something that might have been something about the stick that was up Keith’s ass, but Keith decided to do his brother a favor and ignore him.

“I think everyone caught on pretty well,” Matt added, finally coming up behind Shiro and Keith with the last of the tubs. “With a few more sessions under their belts, they probably won’t even need much more help.” 

“We were all beginners once,” Shiro said, “except maybe you and Katie. I’m pretty sure you were born with the knowledge of how to play Monsters and Mana.”

“Maybe we were,” Matt replied, bumping his shoulder against Shiro’s. “Okay, that’s the last of the boxes, thanks guys. I’ll see you in class on Monday, Shiro.” Matt opened the front door of his car and climbed into the driver’s seat. Unlike his sister, Matt chose to live at home because they lived close enough to the campus that he said it wasn’t worth it to live there when he could save the money, but Katie insisted that she wanted the true “college experience” her freshman year since she was so much younger than everyone else anyway.

“You say that like we won’t hang out this weekend, you liar,” Shiro laughed, shutting the car door for Matt and stepping away to wave. 

Once Matt’s car had pulled out of its parallel-parking spot along the road next to Katie, Lance, and Hunk’s dorm building, Shiro slung his arm over Keith’s shoulder and started strolling off in the direction of Keith’s dorm building a few streets over. 

“So what did you think of everyone?” Keith asked, “like really?”

Shiro shrugged, moving Keith’s shoulders as well. “I thought everyone seemed fine. They’re young. Fresh-faced babies.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “They’re only a year younger than I am.”

“You’re a grumpy old man,” Shiro pointed out. “But they seem nice. And Katie seemed happy to have her friends there. I don’t really think that she had a lot of friends in high school.”

Keith hummed thoughtfully. “I thought that Hunk seemed nice. And it was nice of him to bring snacks. Lance was… interesting.”

“I remember Allura complaining about Lance from orientation, but I think he’s actually a decent guy. He’s just… a lot to handle,” Shiro said slowly. 

“That’s one way to describe him,” Keith said, raising his eyebrows.

Still, he found that he couldn’t get the image of Lance grinning with his blue eyes shining out of his head. 

< < < > > >

“So what was that guy, Keith’s, problem?” Lance complained, as he jumped onto his twin bed in the dorm room that he shared with Hunk. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, man,” Hunk said, as he dropped onto the beanbag chair in front of the TV that he and Lance had chipped in together to buy before school started and booted up the PlayStation. “Wanna play Black Ops?”

“You know I do,” Lance said, making grabby hands until Hunk tossed him the second controller. “And I mean how he totally acted like he was better than us because he already knows how to play Monsters and Mana! It’s not our fault we’ve never played before!” 

“He’s probably just shy about new people joining his gaming group. I’m sure after a few sessions he’ll ease up.”

“Well I feel like I have to prove that I can be just as good of a player as he is! Then he’ll see!”

Hunk rolled his eyes, “sure, Lance.”

< < < > > >

By the time a month (and four sessions) had gone by, Lance no longer felt ashamed to admit that he was a little in love with Monsters and Mana. And he can also say that he was right and Hunk was wrong because Keith has definitely  _not_ eased up after getting to know them a little better.

There was also that time in the dining hall where Keith pretended not to know who Lance was, but that was neither here nor there. 

The campaign is going great, though. The six of them agreed to team up and take on missions for the resistance working against the Galra empire, Pidge thought she had a lead on finding her missing brother, and Shiro had come clean about being the missing Galra prisoner. Allura’s character had also come clean about her identity, revealing herself to be the long lost Elven princess. (When he had heard that particular piece of news, Lance’s character had dropped to his knees and sworn himself into her service, it was Lance’s best role-play experience to date). And of course there were the less-serious, silly plot lines like the NPC bandits who had tried to steal from the party (but only succeeded in tying Lance’s character, Var, to a tree forcing Keith’s character, Akira, to save him). 

But as fun as everything was, Lance was maybe more than a little bothered by the fact that Keith would always bring up stuff from the rules as if everyone else was stupid for not knowing it and how he would always complain under his breath about how Lance had been “playing for a month, how could he not remember which was the d10”. And there was the aforementioned dining hall incident but really that had been awkward and embarrassing for everyone involved (much to the delight of Hunk and Katie) so Lance had resolved not to think about it.

Which was extremely difficult right now because here Lance was, minding his own business and buying lunch (a chicken wrap and a side of tater tots thank you very much) from the Bistro on the first floor of his Engineering building when he saw Keith sitting at one of the round tables. By himself. Reading some kind of novel that’s definitely not homework material if the swooning heroine on the cover is anything to go by. 

Keith is kind of sitting off to the side (that mullet is totally noticeable, okay!) so Lance could probably grab his order and escape unnoticed if he really wanted to, but… well, even if Keith was a total rules-lawyer (according to Katie), Lance wanted to be his friend. In a ‘we’re in the same gaming group so can we at least acknowledge that we know each other’ kind of way at least. He had already bonded slightly with Allura and Shiro, and Matt had basically become an instant friend once they started talking, so the only person that Lance still had to win over was Keith. And yes, trading insults with Keith was fun, but Lance was determined to win him over damnit. 

So, Lance paid for his food and accepted the plastic containers from the worker before making his way over to the table where Keith was sitting.

“Anybody sitting here?” Lance asked, already drawing out the chair opposite Keith. 

Keith’s head snapped up suddenly, and Lance swore that a faint blush was spreading across his cheeks as Keith shoved the paperback book in his hands down into his backpack.

“Uh… hey, Lance,” Keith said.

“So you do know my name,” Lance said, filling his voice with fake surprise. “I wasn’t sure since you  _refused_ to acknowledge me in the dining hall last Monday.”

Keith rolled his eyes, making Lance’s blood boil. Okay, maybe not doing so hot on the whole ‘make friends’ thing. “I was talking to Professor Coran. I was a little too busy to just say ‘hi’.” 

“Just say hi?” Lance placed a hand over his heart dramatically. “Keith, buddy, my man, that is what one does when they see their friends.” 

“Are we… um, friends?” Keith asked, and if Lance didn’t know any better he would say that the other boy sounded almost  _shy_. “I wasn’t sure.”

“Keith, Keith,” Lance said, rocking forward in his chair so that he could lean his elbows on the table, “of course we’re friends! We spend every Friday night together. That’s, like, the basis of any decent friendship.”

Keith reached up to tug at a few strands of his hair that had fallen across his face. “But you don’t even like me?” He said, and wow, okay. So maybe they didn’t get along the greatest at Game Night and maybe Lance thought that Keith was, like, fun to get a rise out of, but he hadn’t wanted to give Keith the impression that he didn’t like him! No wonder Keith hadn’t talked to him in the dining hall.

“Of course I like you! Like, do I wish that you could chill out when it comes to me remembering all these crazy rules because my brain just isn’t wired that way? Sure. But that doesn’t mean that I don’t like you,” Lance rushed to explain, tripping over his words in an effort to get them out. “And I know that I can be a bit… much at times, so I’m sorry if I made you uncomfortable. Or something.”

Keith let out a long breath. “Okay.”

“Okay?” Lance echoed.

“Okay. We’re friends. And I’ll try to remember that. About the rules. When you’ve been playing for so long it’s hard to remember that not everyone knows everything off the top of their head.”

“Exactly,” Lance said, giving Keith a pair of finger guns, before popping open the lid to his container of tater tots. “So what were you reading?” Lance asked, delighting in the steady blush that spread across Keith’s pale cheeks. However, to make up for his teasing, Lance slid the container of tater tots over until they were in the center of the table. A deep-fried olive branch.

“Just a book,” Keith mumbled, but he did reach over and grab a tater tot (success!).

“About….” Lance trailed off, wagging his eyebrows.

“About a girl who breaks up marriage matches if she doesn’t think that they’ll last, but when she breaks up the match of her brother’s best friend she feels guilty and agrees to help him find a new bride,” Keith admitted with a sigh, scowling when Lance chuckled. “Shut up, Lance.”

< < < > > >

“I think you should take a level of rogue next time Matt lets us level up,” Keith said, making Lance’s head snap up.

“What?!?” He said, certain that he hadn’t heard Keith correctly. “You-You’re the rogue,” he sputtered.

Keith smirked and rolled his eyes, but he scooted over closer on the couch they were sitting on (Keith upright like a normal person and Lance sprawled out over two of the three cushions) and flipped through the open  _Player’s Handbook_ in Lance’s hand until it was open to the rogue section.

“You always attack the same targets as me, or sometimes Shiro, as a way to give us cover fire. If you take a level of rogue, you could get Sneak Attack. Then, if you shoot an arrow at an enemy who’s already engaged in melee combat with one of your party members…”

“I get a flanking bonus,” Lance finished, feeling his eyes widen. Keith was a  _fucking genius_. Not that Lance would ever admit it, of course. 

Keith nodded, “you could get an extra d6 of damage to basically every attack.” 

“Dude… dude,” Lance said, his breath barely a whisper. 

Keith smirked and leaned back to his side of the couch, picking his laptop off the floor and flipping it open. 

“Have you decided what archetype you’re going to take yet? You get yours at the next level, right?” Lance asked, glancing over at Keith out of the corner of his eye.

“I think I’m going to take assassin,” Keith answered without looking at him. “The stats would work really well, plus the dagger abilities are fucking awesome.”

The two of them were alone in the lounge, although Pidge had been with them earlier before running off to the computer lab to finish her latest Computer Tech project (Lance still hadn’t started his, but it was fine. He still had a few days until it was due). After deciding at the Bistro that the two of them were, in fact, friends, Lance had decided that the next step was inviting Keith to hang out at the lounge in between classes with Pidge, Hunk, and himself. Despite living in one of the dorms on the other side of campus, Keith had agreed to come and help Lance work on his Monsters and Mana character. 

“So if I take ranger for this level-up, I get a few early-level nature spells, right? And then you’re saying I should dip into rogue next time to get the Sneak Attack bonus?” As he spoke, Lance tapped his mechanical pencil against the side of Keith’s  _Playe_ _r’s Handbook_. 

“Yeah, exactly. And we can always use more spellcasters on the team, since right now the only ones are really Hunk and Allura.”

“And Shiro,” Lance added, even though Shiro’s spells really only helped to buff his own defense. 

“Shiro doesn’t count,” Keith said, mirroring Lance’s own inner thoughts. 

“Don’t let him hear you say that,” Lance warned. “Shiro’s scary.”

Keith chuckled, “Shiro’s not scary.”

“Um, yeah, dude, he totally is. I know that he’s, like, your brother or something, but he could totally kick both our asses. And I feel no shame in admitting that because, like I said, he’s scary.”

“You’re insane,” Keith informed him, deadpan.

Lance chucked a d20 at him. 

< < < > > >

“Hey, Lance, watch the Galra soldier at your six,” Keith said, as he reached across the table to grip the miniature representing Akira and slid it forward to engage with one of the other Galra soldiers.

Matt coughed subtitly and Keith groaned. “Sorry. Var, watch the Galra soldier at your six.”

“I got it,” Lance replied, even though he definitely and in no way ‘ _had this’_ seeing as Keith knew that his character was absolute garbage at melee attacks. 

Fuck.

“Okay I want to use my action to make a sword attack against the Galra in front of me, and then use my bonus action to throw my knife at the Galra approaching Var.”

“Ah man, I said that I got it,” Lance groaned, but Keith ignored him.

“Roll for it,” Matt instructed, and Keith picked up his black d20 with the red numbers. He rolled it twice in quick succession, watching as it bounced across the table in front of him.

“Fifteen for the first attack, and seventeen for the second,” Keith said.

“Both hit, roll for damage.”

Keith picked up his six-sided dice and one of the triangular, four-sided die. “A total of ten damage with my bonus against the Galra soldier in front of me. And five damage against the one sneaking up on Lance.”

“Okay,” Matt said, before launching into his narration of events. “You swing your sword at the one in front of you, slipping through a chink in his defenses and carving into his flesh. Without looking behind you, you use your off-hand to fling your dagger backwards catching the soldier in the center of his back. It’s not enough to bring either of them down, but they’re looking pretty weak. Lance, you’re up.”

“‘Thanks, Samurai!’ Okay I’m going to shoot my bow at the guy closing in on me.” Lance said, but Keith thought he sounded a little nervous. 

“The target is technically in melee combat with you, so you have disadvantage,” Matt said, sounding slightly sorry (but not that sorry) about it.

“Fuck. I know. But there’s nothing else I can do,” Lance groaned, picking up the blue d20 from the set he had borrowed from Matt before reaching across the table to grab Keith’s d20 as well.

“Hey! I don’t want your bad dice mojo all over my dice!” Keith exclaimed, reaching forward to try and grab his die back. 

“Dice mojo is so not a thing, Mullet,” Lance snickered, shaking the dice dramatically between his cupped hands before letting them roll across the table. 

“It is so!” Keith replied, “And now you’ve corrupted my favorite set of dice!” 

Lance ignored him in favor of looking at both the d20s. Since he had disadvantage, he had to take the lower of the two results. “Twelve?” He asked Matt, his voice squeaking pitifully. 

“Sadly, the Galra soldier is too close to you. You fire off a shot, but he deflects it easily with his shield.” Matt said.

“Fuck,” Lance groaned again, dropping his head back down onto the table. Without looking, he slid the black and red d20 back across the table towards Keith. “Take your stupid die back. It did nothing to help me.”

Keith grabbed his die, returning it safely to his side of the table. “So you corrupted it for no reason. Couldn’t you have used Hunk’s dice?”

“Hey!” Hunk said, sounding slightly hurt.

Lance just shrugged, his body dragging across the table. 

“You owe me a new set of dice now,” Keith informed him, smirking when Lance picked his head up off the table to glare at him.

“Dude, I am  _not_ buying you a new set of dice before I even get my own set.”

“Okay, um, Allura, you’re up next,” Matt called, raising his voice slightly so that he could be heard over the bickering. 

< < < > > >

“Okay, what is going on with you and Keith?” Katie asked, as she followed Lance into his dorm room after Monday’s Computer Tech class.

Lance whipped his head around to look at her. “What are you talking about? We’ve been getting along. Mostly.” 

“That’s my point!” She cried, throwing her hands up into the air. “A few sessions ago, all you did was take cheap shots at each other, and now you guys are hanging out in the lounge even when no one else is there, and the teasing at Friday’s Game Night sounded downright civil!” 

“So you’re mad? Because we’re getting along?” Lance asked, scratching the back of his neck, confused. 

“I’m not mad,” Katie corrected. “I’m just confused. Actually, I think we all are.”

“Well Keith and I just decided that it was better to be friends since we hang out every Friday night anyway. It’s not that complicated, Katie.” 

Katie rolled her eyes at him, as if to say  _I’m guessing that there’s more to the story_ , but Lance ignored the pointed look she gave him. 

“What are we talking about?” Hunk asked, as he strolled into the dorm room, and Jesus, had Katie left the door wide open again? Lance hated when she did that. 

“Just how weird it is that Lance and Keith are friends all of a sudden,” Katie answered, jumping onto Hunk’s beanbag chair before he could claim it. 

“Oh, yeah, that,” Hunk said. “It is kind of weird, dude.” That traitor.

“It’s not that weird!” Lance defended, even though he wasn’t entirely sure why he was feeling so defensive about the subject.

Hunk held up his hands in surrender, “whatever you say, man.” 

“I’m gonna go do my homework in the lounge,” Lance grumbled, grabbing his backpack and slinging it over one of his shoulder. 

“Lance, come on, man,” Hunk called after him, and it sounded like even Katie called out a half-assed apology, but Lance ignored them.

He stalked down the halls of the dorm, not sure why their accusations were bothering him so much. So what if Hunk and Pidge thought it was weird that he was getting along with Keith? He knew why, too. Because Lance could hold a grudge like literally no one else, and Hunk knew that better than anyone. In fact, considering that, it  _was_ actually kind of weird how quickly Lance had gotten over his half-assed rivalry with Keith to become friends with him. In any other life, Lance probably would have declared Keith to be public-enemy number one. 

As lost in his thoughts as he was, Lance found himself reaching the lounge sooner than he had expected. It was empty, which wasn’t surprising since the only ones to use it were Lance, Hunk, and Katie except for on Friday nights when they swiped everyone else into the building, but still caused disappointment to bloom in Lance’s chest. 

“What’s wrong with me?” Lance asked aloud, as he glanced around the empty room.

< < < > > >

“Take that!” Keith cried, as he pounded the buttons on his Nintendo Switch to make Link battle against the seemingly-endless wave of monsters around him. 

Not even the sound of someone knocking on his dorm room door was enough to draw him out of the intense concentration he was in. He had already lost this battle twice. He would be damned if he lost it again. “It’s open!” He called. 

“That’s how you open your door?” Shiro chided, as he let himself in. 

“I knew it was you,” Keith waved off his brother’s concern. “Just let me, argh, finish this fight.” 

Keith was pretty sure that he could see Shiro shaking his head out of the corner of his eye, but he ignored his older brother in favor of staring at the TV. 

“Shit,” he growls, barely a minute later, tossing his controller down onto the ground. “I’m never gonna beat this level.”

“You’ll get it eventually,” Shiro assured him, dropping down onto the couch next to him. 

“So what are you doing here, anyway?” Keith asked.

“Wow, Shiro, it’s so good to see you,” Shiro joked. “And I’m great, Keith, thanks for asking.”

“I just saw you the other day,” Keith waved his hand. “But fine. Hi, Shiro, how are you?”

“Honestly? I got in a fight with Matt earlier.” Keith’s head snapped up, studying his brother’s profile. 

“Seriously? About what?” 

“About graduate school next year. It’s just… I don’t know,” Shiro sighed, reaching up to drag a hand down his face. 

“Shit. I’m sorry, Shiro. Anything I can do to help?” 

“Let’s go out tonight,” Shiro said. “I don’t want to hang out in my apartment all alone.”

“You know, you wouldn’t be alone if you let me move in like I wanted you to,” Keith teased, but he pushed himself off the couch to grab his jacket. 

“You know you have to live on-campus if you want that summer job. I already did my time.” 

“Whatever, old man. Okay, I’m ready. Where do you want to go?” 

“I don’t know,” Shiro sighed. “I’d say a bar, but I’m pretty sure that would make me the worst guardian ever.” 

“So… pizza?” Keith asked.

“Fine. Yeah. Pizza,” Shiro agreed, pushing himself off the couch. 

< < < > > >

The pizza place was kind of crowded when Keith and Shiro got there, which made sense due to its close proximity to a college campus. 

“Go grab a table,” Shiro said. “I’ll go place our order at the counter.”

“Sure,” Keith said, maneuvering his way through the tiny restaurant to one of the tall tables with bar stools that was empty. 

Keith hopped up onto the tall seat (in a completely dignified manner) and waited for Shiro to come back. He wasn’t too concerned about the fact that Shiro and Matt had apparently had a fight about grad school, the two of them had been friends forever and would undoubtedly make up, but selfishly, Keith couldn’t help but hope that they made up before tomorrow’s Game Night. 

“Woah, long time no see, Samurai,” called an all-too-familiar voice. 

Keith swiveled around on the barstool to see Lance strolling through the pizza parlour. 

“Oh, hey, Lance,” Keith said, lifting one of his hands in a small wave.

“Anyone sitting here?” Lance asked, gesturing to the seat across from Keith, and Keith couldn’t help but be reminded of how Lance said the exact same thing before joining him at the Bistro. 

“Um, yeah, actually…” Keith started to say, but Lance just raised his eyebrows in typical-overdramatic-Lance-fashion.

“Oh, shit, dude. Are you out on a date? Cause I’ll totally get out of your way.”

Keith felt a traitorous blush creep over his face because that is just so  _Lance_ to assume that Keith was on a date. Keith couldn’t actually remember the last time he had been on a date. “No,” he said. “Shiro’s ordering the pizza.”

“Oh, cool. Can I join you guys until my pickup order is ready?” Lance asked, sitting down at the barstool opposite Keith without waiting for confirmation. 

“Yeah, sure, I guess,” Keith replied, not sure what else he could say since Lance was already sitting down. He was pretty sure Shiro wanted it to just be the two of them but… 

“Great!” Lance said cheerfully. “So what’s up, dude?”

Keith shrugged. “I’m just trying to cheer Shiro up.”

“Is he okay?” Lance asked, sounding genuinely concerned.

“I think he’ll be okay,” Keith said. “The prospect of graduate school is just weighing really heavily on him. And on Matt.”

“Being a senior sounds like it sucks,” Lance groaned, “there’s so much responsibility!” 

“I think it’s called being an adult, Lance.”

“Well adulting can kiss my - ah, hi, Shiro,” Lance said, looking a little flustered.

Keith turned in his seat to see that Shiro had indeed approached them without his noticing it, but Shiro looked amused to find them talking about him and not upset, so Keith let out a small breath of relief. 

“Hi, Lance, are you joining us?” Shiro asked, grabbing an extra stool from one of the other tables and dragging it between Keith and Lance. 

“Is that cool? I was just gonna pick up my pizza and eat alone in my dorm while Pidge and Hunk finish up some project for their Engineering class, so I can totally get out of your hair…” 

Shiro laughed, reaching over to clap Lance’s shoulder gently. “Stay.”

“Okay,” Lance said, letting out a deep breath of air. “If you don’t mind.”

“You’ll make him change his mind,” Keith warned. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll stay. Let me go grab my pizza,” Lance said as he scrambled off of his seat and jogged over to the counter to pick up a pizza in a take-out box.

Keith watched Lance until Shiro coughed slightly, and Keith turned his attention back to his older brother slightly guiltily.

“Sorry it won’t be just the two of us,” Keith apologized. 

“It’s fine,” Shiro laughed, “we can’t just send Lance back to his room alone. Besides, Lance is a good kid.” 

Luckily, Keith was spared from having to answer Shiro by Lance’s return to the table.

“So, Lance, how are you liking Monsters and Mana so far?”

“Oh, man, it’s great! It’s so much better than I thought it would be,” Lance gushed. “Like, when Katie first invited me, I thought it was a total nerd game - no offense - but it’s actually really cool.”

“Offense taken,” Keith grumbled half-heartedly. 

“I didn’t realize how intense everything was,” Lance admitted, as he opened his pizza box and pulled out a slice of pepperoni pizza. 

Keith reached over and grabbed a slice from the open box, and Lance slapped Keith’s arm. “Don’t you have your own pizza on the way, dude?” 

“But yours is here now,” Keith protested. “And besides, Shiro ordered, which probably means that it’s covered in healthy crap.”

“Hey! Black olives and tomatoes are not healthy crap.” Shiro said, “they are delicious pizza toppings.”

“Oh man,” Lance sighed, “yeah, here, you can have some of my pizza.”

“Thank god,” Keith said, taking a bite. 

Shiro rolled his eyes. 

< < < > > >

Luckily, Matt and Shiro  _do_ make up by the next morning, and the Friday Night Game Night goes on as planned. It’s a good session, but it has to end early because Matt got called into work early the next morning fairly last minute, so they mostly just go shopping for some new supplies and chat up some locals to see if anyone can get any information on missing members from the resistance group.

“So what now?” Lance asked, and even after knowing Lance for just over a month, Keith had already picked up on the fact that he was never one to sit still for very long. “It’s so early. Normally we’d be playing for  _at least_  another hour.” 

Katie and Hunk both shrug. “We could do homework?” Katie offered, but even Keith could hear the reservations in her tone.

“I know!” Lance exclaimed, sitting up dramatically and waving one of his fingers in the air. “Let’s have a movie night!” 

Katie and Hunk shared another look, this one significantly more excited. 

“I’ll go grab the TV and the PlayStation,” Hunk cheered, taking off in the direction of what Keith assumes is the dorm room he shares with Lance. 

Keith raised an eyebrow and looked between the remaining two. “Aren’t there TVs in the front lounges? Why does Hunk need to go get one?”

“Um, dude, the front lounges are always full,” Lance explained like this should be obvious. “Why do you think we always hide out back here?”

“So no one witnesses you playing Monsters and Mana?” Keith asked skeptically.

“Nooooooooooo, because the people who hang out in the front lounges are annoying TV hogs. Since there isn’t a TV back here, no one else bothers to steal our spot.”

“So what are we going to watch?” Keith asked, and he swears that Lance absolutely lights up. 

It doesn’t make his heart beat faster in his chest.  _It doesn’t_. 

“You’re staying?” Lance asked, sounding excited by the prospect. 

Keith shrugged. “Sure. Why not?” 

“I thought you’d leave with Shiro,” Lance admitted.

Keith glanced to the other side of the room, where Shiro was currently dragging the last of Matt’s game master materials through the back door towards Matt’s car. 

“I thought I’d stick around for a bit.” 

“Awesome-sauce. Okay so movie choices. Katie, what do you have on you?”

As if this was perfectly normal request, Katie reached down and unzipped her backpack. “Okay, I’ve got the newest  _Star Trek_ movie, some old horror film from, like, the 90s, or  _13 Going On 30_.”

“Yes!” Lance shouted, lunging across Katie’s armchair to snatch a movie out of her arms before retreating a safe distance. “ _13 Going On 30_ is the best.”

“Lance, you always make us watch those old cheesy movies. Can’t we just watch an action flick?” Katie pleaded.

“ _Old, cheesy movies_?!?” Lance practically shouted. “Katie, how could you? These movies are classics. Right, Keith?”

Lance turned to face him suddenly, and Keith felt his face flush. “I… um. Actually, I’ve never seen it. So… I… wouldn’t know.”

“Oh my God. At least tell me you’ve seen  _The Breakfast Club_.”

Keith shook his head slowly.

“Keith, buddy, my man,” Lance said, walking forward so he could drop down dramatically into the (extremely uncomfortable) couch right next to Keith. “You are missing out. Okay, it’s decided, we’re having another movie night tomorrow. You must be educated. Sorry, Keith, I don’t make the rules.”

Keith bit his lip to keep from grinning. He couldn’t even remember the last time that someone had invited him to do something for fun (getting asked to join Matt’s gaming group because he’s Shiro’s little brother doesn’t count). 

“Okay. We can watch it tomorrow,” Keith agreed, “but eventually I get to pick a movie too. How do you feel about Tom Cruise?”

“ _Mission Impossible_ Tom Cruise or  _Oblivion_ Tom Cruise?” Lance asked, narrowing his eyes at Keith. 

“ _Oblivion_ , obviously. Sci fi movies are the best.”

“Glad we finally agree on something, Samurai.” Which, really, is a ridiculous thing for Lance to say, because they’ve actually been agreeing on a lot of things lately.

The door to the lounge clattered against the wall as it was thrown open, and Hunk staggered into the room holding a small flat screen and a PlayStation in his arms, interrupting whatever moment had been passing while Keith and Lance stared at each other on the couch.

“So what did I miss?” Hunk asked, setting the electronics down on the table.

< < < > > >

So Lance isn’t exactly sure how it happened, but at some point during the middle of  _13 Going On 30_ , he had ended up with his legs tossed onto Keith’s lap, using the armrest at the far end of the couch as a pillow. Hunk and Katie had both pulled armchairs over, and the TV was set up on the table that they usually gamed on, so the couch was kind of far back from the screen, but it was comfortable and Lance didn’t feel like dragging a big heavy armchair around.

All of these things had seemed like a good idea at the time, but as a direct result, Lance was having a hard time focusing on the movie. 

Hunk and Katie keep shooting him weird looks, and Lance  _gets it_. He knows that they’re confused about his 180 attitude change towards Keith.  _Hell_ , he’s confused by his 180 attitude change towards Keith.

Or, at least, he was.

After bumping into Keith and Shiro at the pizza shop on Thursday night, Lance was pretty sure that he figured out what had gotten into him. 

Because he had tried to sound cool and nonchalant when he had asked Keith if he was on a date, but the feelings that had been churning inside of him were anything but. 

So maybe,  _maybe_  Lance  _likes_ Keith. Like in a  _wants-to-be-more-than-friends_ and  _I-kind-of-want-to-kiss-your-stupidly-attractive-face_ kind of way. 

Because, like, Keith is hot. Even with that stupid mullet. Lance had known that since the first time that he saw him. But it was more than that. It was the way that Keith honest-to-God believed in “dice mojo” and the way that Keith read romance novels when no one else was looking (Lance always was a bit of a hopeless romantic, himself). It was the way Keith sounded when he was unsure of himself or the way he smirked when he was feeling confident. And at the risk of sounding like a lovesick fool, Lance was totally, utterly gone on him. 

And sitting on a couch with someone, your feet in their lap, while a rom-com plays on the TV is not exactly the best time for a realization such as this. 

“What?” Keith asked, breaking Lance’s attention away from his inner thoughts.

“Hmm? Nothing,” Lance said quickly, causing Keith to narrow his eyes.

“You were staring at me,” Keith accused.

“No I wasn’t,” Lance replied, his words coming out too fast to be casual, “I was just zoned out.”

“You’re supposed to be watching the movie. You’re the one who picked it out,” Keith said, shaking his head, but Lance could see a small smile working its way onto his face.

“But I’ve seen it, like, a bajillion times.” Lance said, twisting over on the couch so that he was once again facing the TV.

“You’re the one making us watch it, though,” Keith reminded him.

“Well, duh, you can’t go your whole life never having seen  _13 Going On 30_. You need to know the magic of Razzles!”

Keith just laughed, shifting on the couch until suddenly a warm presence pressed down onto his calf. Lance didn’t have to look over to know that it was Keith’s hand.

“But what’s the point of having a candy that turns into gum? It sounds impractical.”

Lance shook his head, “you’re impractical,” he replied, although it was lacking any real heat.

“Shut up!” Katie hissed, “some of us are still  _trying_ to watch the movie.” 

Lance rolled his eyes at her. He was, like, ninety-nine percent sure that Katie has seen the movie  _at least_ as many times as he had. 

“Oh! This, is like, my favorite part,” Lance said, pushing himself back up into a sitting position on the couch.

Keith turned towards him and raised an eyebrow. “You’ve said that four times already.You can’t have four favorite parts of a movie.”

“You totally can. Besides, I think it’s important that you realize my flaws earlier rather than later. Even I can admit that I’m totally annoying during movies. Hunk and Katie have made that perfectly clear.”

“Dude,” Hunk said, “I would  _never_ call you annoying.”

“And I wouldn’t, either,” Katie added. “At least, not to your face.”

“Thanks, Katie, really feeling the love right now,” Lance said.

“Well, if you would just  _stop talking_.”

“Okay, fine,” Lance said, holding up his hands in surrender. 

< < < > > >

As it it turns out, it is physically impossible for Lance to keep his mouth shut during the movie, something which normally would annoy Keith to the ends of the earth, but for some reason he finds hopelessly endearing, instead.

The only time Lance actually manages to shut up is when he falls asleep, his head lolling over the couch cushion to slide onto Keith’s shoulder. 

Katie had fallen asleep about half an hour before Lance did, so Hunk had decided to carry her back to his room before heading to bed, himself.

“Remind Lance to bring the TV and the PlayStation back with him,” Hunk had said, uncharacteristically sternly, before he eased the lounge door shut behind him, although his face seemed to soften at Lance’s half-asleep expression. 

“Sure,” Keith had answered, even though he was pretty sure that Hunk couldn’t hear him anymore. 

He glanced down at Lance, wrinkling his nose when he realizes that even in his sleep, Lance’s mouth is hanging open, which means he’s getting drool all over the shoulder of Keith’s black t-shirt. 

“Gross,” he muttered, but he leaned forward and picked up the TV controller from its place on the table to mute the movie. He had stopped paying attention to the plot a while ago, if he was being honest, and he had just been listening to Lance’s comments instead. 

Keith leaned back into the couch, careful not to wake Lance, and kicked his feet up so that they were resting on Hunk’s abandoned armchair. 

He pulled his phone out of his back pocket, wiggling slightly, and unlocked it, tapping on the one game he kept on his phone (yes, it was a Monsters and Mana game. Sue him). 

Maybe he would let Lance sleep for just a little while longer.

< < < > > >

When Lance woke up the next morning, it was to an aching neck. He blinked his eyes open, finding himself face-first with the nasty kinda-green-kinda-grey couch cushions from the lounge’s couch. 

He reached up, rubbing one hand across his eyes to wipe the sleep from them, while he used the other to push himself back up into a normal sitting position. It seemed as though he had fallen asleep against the back of the couch, but had slid down to lay across the whole thing as some point during the night. 

Of course, as soon as this registered, Lance felt instantly awake. Oh shit. If someone had taken Hunk’s PlayStation while he was asleep, Hunk was going to  _kill_  him.

“Hey, sleeping beauty,” a familiar voice said, and Lance whipped his head around to see Keith strolling into the lounge from the back door, a white paper bag and was that…

“Is that coffee?” Lance asked aloud, and Christ, his voice sounded terrible. 

“Yeah,” Keith answered, dropping down onto the couch next to him and pressing one of the cups into Lance’s hand.

It was warm to the touch, and smelled good, and Lance could already feel his morning improving. 

“I didn’t… uh… I didn’t know what you liked, but you seem like the type of guy who likes his coffee to be more sugar than actual coffee, so I ordered you some sort of mocha latte thing…” Keith rambled, a faint blush spreading across his cheeks. 

Lance lifted the coffee cup to his lips and took a sip. True to Keith’s word, it was definitely more sugar than coffee (which was, in fact, the way that Lance preferred it). “It’s perfect,” he said.

“Okay. Great. Um. Oh, here,” and with that, Keith all but shoved the paper bag into Lance’s other hand. 

“Did you bring me food, too?” Lance asked, opening the top of the paper bag to reveal two blueberry muffins. “Oh my god, I love you,” he sighed, reaching in to pull one of the muffins out.

“Uh, you’re welcome, I guess,” Keith said, reaching up to rub the back of his neck.

“Seriously, though, you’re, like, such a good provider. How early did you wake up? Also did you fall asleep during the movie? Because I’ve seen it before, so I’m allowed to sleep during it, but you should have finished it,” Lance said around a mouthful of muffin, crumbs sprinkling down onto his blue t-shirt. 

“I think it was six,” Keith replied. “The couch was really uncomfortable. Also, you drool and it’s gross.”

“I do not drool!” Lance exclaimed, offended, “how dare you make such claims? I’m sure that I’m just as beautiful a sleeper as I am when I’m awake. Oh, shit! I didn’t do my skin care routine last night,” as the sudden realization hit Lance, he cursed himself for doing something as stupid as fall asleep on the lounge couch. The fate of his skin was in question! Oh God, now he was going to break out and it would be terrible and it would all be Keith’s fault because Keith didn’t wake him up. 

“You have a skin care… nope. You know what, I’m not even going to touch that,” Keith said slowly. 

“It’s important to take care of your skin, Keith. When you’re old and wrinkly and I still look like I’m in my twenties, then you’ll see,” Lance informed him, taking another bite of his blueberry muffin. 

Keith raised an eyebrow at him, but didn’t respond as he took a sip of his coffee.

“Okay,” Lance declared, after he finished his muffin, “first things first. We have to lug the TV and Hunk’s PlayStation back to our dorm room. Then, we can figure out what to do with our Saturday.” As he spoke, Lance leapt up from the couch, brushing muffin crumbs off his shirt.  

“Well I was thinking to head over to Game Emporium, later,” Keith answered, following Lance over to where the TV and PlayStation were plugged in. “Do you want to come? I can drive.”

Lance grabbed the TV’s wire, unplugging it from the electrical outlet on the wall. “Yeah, sure. Sounds fun. I’ve never been to a gaming store before. Oh! This means I can finally buy my own set of dice.”

“That way you can stop stealing mine,” Keith grumbled.

“That was one time! Okay, help me carry this stuff to my room. Hunk’s such a deep sleeper, he probably won’t even notice,” Lance said, as he lifted the flat screen into his arms. He staggered under the weight for a few steps, but he waved off Keith’s attempt to help him. 

“Wow, okay, Hunk makes this look, like, supper easy,” Lance said. “Okay, you grab the PlayStation, and follow me.”

< < < > > >

Keith followed Lance (who was tiptoeing dramatically) into his dorm room, glancing around. Because he shared with Hunk, it was actually a bigger room than Keith’s single room, but it was still tiny. 

Hunk and Lance had pushed their beds to the opposite sides of the room, giving them space to have a few beanbag chairs and a small dress or had obviously been turned into an entertainment stand. Lance placed the TV onto the dresser carefully, so Keith followed his lead and set the PlayStation down before letting his gaze wander around the rest of the room.

Hunk’s side (the left side) seemed clean and spacious, save for the blanket that Hunk had apparently kicked onto the floor sometime during the night. Soft snores filled the room from the still-sleeping boy. 

Lance’s side of the room, on the other hand, was… a mess. Honestly, it was a disaster, there was no other way to describe it. Clothes were tossed carelessly onto his bed and onto the floor, a laundry hamper was overflowing in the corner, and his closet couldn’t shut all the way. His school books were cluttered atop his desk along with a pile of notebook paper that looked like someone had crushed into a ball and then flattened again. The walls were decorated with dozens of tiny polaroid pictures, and Keith could see Katie and Hunk in a few of them, but many of them were of people he didn’t know at all. Probably Lance’s family.

The one notable exception to the mess was the top of Lance’s dresser (so Hunk’s must be the entertainment stand), which was lined with dozens of bottles of lotion and face wash and other beauty products that Keith couldn’t identify. 

“Okay,” Lance whispered, “I’m going to go and take a shower. And wash my face. God, I can’t believe I went to bed without washing my face. What kind of slob am I?”

Keith looked pointedly around the room, causing a steady flush to creep across Lance’s neck to his face.

“Shut up,” he hissed. “I wasn’t exactly planning on having company.”

“Whatever you say, man,” Keith whispered back.

“Just… where’s your car?” Lance asked. “Like, where can I meet you?”

“I’m in the lot behind Garrison. That’s my dorm. Just meet me out front of my dorm,” Keith said, “or in the lobby if someone takes pity and swipes you in.”

“Sounds good,” Lance said, making his way over to his closet. Alarmingly, he picked up a pair of jeans and lifted them to his nose as if to make sure they were still clean. “See you in a few.”

“Right,” Keith said, “um, see you.”

Keith eased out of Lance’s dorm room, careful not to slam the door behind him so that Hunk wouldn’t wake up. Once he was safely out of sight from Lance, Keith took off into a jog to get back to his room. 

< < < > > >

Thirty minutes later, after a quick shower and a change of clothes, Keith made his way towards the front door of Garrison Hall. He didn’t see Lance lounging on any of the couches or armchairs in the front living area, so he headed outside.

Sure enough, Lance was standing awkwardly a few feet away from the door, his hands shoved in the pockets of his brown army jacket. He looked every inch like a puppy who wasn’t allowed inside the house. When the door opened, Lance’s head snapped up and he grinned when he saw that it was Keith.

“No one took pity on you and swiped you in?” Keith asked, as he made sure the door shut all the way behind him. 

“No,” Lance pouted. 

“Okay, come on, I’m parked out back,” Keith said, leading Lance around the dorm building to the parking lot for dorm residents in the back. 

The parking lot was mostly empty, since not a lot of students brought their cars with them to campus. However, Keith bypassed all of the cars in favor of approaching -

“Holy, shit! What the hell is that?” Lance cried.

Keith turned to raise an unimpressed eyebrow at the other boy. “It’s my bike?”

“When you said that you were driving, I was picturing, oh I don’t know, a car!” Lance screeched. “I can’t get on that!”

“Why not? I’m a good driver, I promise,” Keith said, pulling his helmet out of the storage space on the back of his bike to offer it to Lance. “You can even wear my helmet if you want. Unless you have a better idea.”

Some of the tension seemed to leave Lance’s shoulders. “I don’t have a car on campus,” he admitted. “You can’t exactly put a car on a plane. But still, my mamá would literally kill me.” 

“Are you not from around here?” Keith asked, climbing onto his bike.

“Seriously, dude?!? No, I’m from Cuba.”

“Oh, wow. That’s, uh, that’s cool.”

Lance chuckled at Keith’s response, and took a few steps closer to the bike. “Kinda,” he admitted, “but it sucks being so far away from home.”

“What made you pick a liberal arts school in the United States?” Keith couldn’t help but ask.

“It has one of the best Aerospace Engineering programs,” Lance answered, “I always wanted to be a space pilot.”

“I used to want to go to space, too,” Keith said. “I always told Shiro that I wanted to be an astronaut.”

“What changed?” Lance asked.

Keith felt his face flush. “I, um, couldn’t pass the science classes,” he admitted. “The ones that I have to take for my Exercise Science degree are hard enough.”

“We can’t all be Katie Holt,” Lance agreed with a nod.

Keith snorted, “or Matthew Holt, for that matter.”

“True,” Lance agreed. “Okay, so are you seriously going to make me get on that death trap?”

“Do you want to go to the gaming store?” Keith countered.

Lance groaned. “Okay, fine, but you can  _never_ , and I mean  _never_  tell my mamá about this.”

“Deal,” Keith said. Since Lance’s mom apparently lived in Cuba, he doubted that would be a problem.

“Okay, then,” Lance said, and Keith could hear his voice wobbling. Lance closed the remaining distance between himself and Keith’s bike. “So I just, like, climb on?”

“Yeah, and then put your arms around me so you don’t fall off. When I lean, you lean. Got it?”

“I think so,” Lance said, and Keith felt the bike rock under the added weight of another body before Lance’s arms stretched out and reached around his middle.

Lance was warm against Keith’s back, and when Keith glanced over his shoulder to look at him, he saw that Lance had put on the helmet, only a few locks of short brown hair escaping from underneath it. 

Lance was barely gripping onto Keith, as if he were afraid of touching him, but as soon as Keith reeved the engine, Lance’s arms tightened around him until it felt like Keith was being crushed by a boa constrictor. 

Without giving the other boy any additional warning, Keith kicked off from the ground and zipped out of the parking lot.

< < < > > >

“Oh my god, Keith, who has told you that you’re a good driver?” Lance asked, his stomach churning as he slid of the bike and into the parking lot behind the gaming store.

“Well, no one has ever told me. But I’ve never crashed!” Keith said, as he grabbed the helmet from Lance’s hands and returned it to the storage container on the bike.

“And that’s your judgement for being a  _good driver_!” Lance screeched. “I just put my life into your hands!”

“And we didn’t crash,” Keith said. “So what’s the problem?”

“What’s the- what’s the problem? Jesus Christ, Keith, did you have to go so  _fast_? I was afraid for my life!”

Lance thought he saw Keith roll his eyes at him, but he wasn’t sure. “We were going the same speed as the cars.” 

“But the cars are enclosed!” Lance said, trailing behind Keith as Keith led him up to the back door of Game Emporium, which was covered in posters for Monsters and Mana, Magic the Gathering, and countless other games that Lance didn’t recognize. 

“Stop being such a baby,” Keith chided him. “I got you here in one piece, and you still have to let me drive you home later.”

Lance let out an annoyed huff of air, but he didn’t protest any further as Keith led him into the store.

Lance immediately felt his eyes widen as he glanced around, while the store had looked small on the outside, it felt bigger on the inside. The walls were covered in floor-to-ceiling bookcases stocked with board games and books and boxes of Monsters and Mana figurines. The center of the building was occupied by three long tables and chairs, one of which was currently full of people playing some kind of card game with each other. At the far side of the building, really the front (but since the parking lot was in the back, Lance assumed that’s the door that got used more frequently), was the checkout counter and a large glass display case.

He can feel Keith’s eyes on him, as if Keith was watching him to see his reaction. 

“This place is amazing,” he breathed, his legs already carrying him over towards the closest bookcase. 

“Yeah, it is,” Keith responded, and Lance didn’t have to look to see if Keith was smiling because, he would swear to God that he can hear it in Keith’s voice. 

“I don’t even know what half this stuff is,” Lance admitted.

Keith followed his gaze around the store. “We’re in the Warhammer section right there. The Monsters and Mana section is over there. Um, there’s Pathfinder and Dungeons and Dragons stuff, too. That’s the paint and stuff if you want to paint your own miniatures. Those are the standalone board games. And up front in the glass case are the dice and Magic the Gathering cards.” As Keith spoke, he gestured around the one-room building, pointing out the sections to Lance. 

“Let’s look at the Monsters and Mana minis. I want to see if there’s a cool one I could use for Var. I mean, don’t get me wrong, the one Matt is lending me is cool and all, but I want my own, ya know?” Lance said, his words rushing over one another as a result of his excitement. 

Keith chuckled. “Yeah, sure, let’s go.” Keith led him past the tables over to one of the bookcases on the other side, this one filled with items that Lance recognised. The Monsters and Mana  _Player’s Handbook_ , as well as dozens of other books (Lance also recognised the  _Monster Manuel_ and the  _Game Master’s Guide_  from Matt’s usage of them, and Keith explained that the other books were campaign settings for GMs who didn’t want to write their own like Matt did), boxes of pre-painted miniatures, and boxes of tiles used as the boards to simulate cities, outdoors, or dungeons. 

Keith reached up and pulled down one of the campaign books, beginning to flip through it, while Lance picked up the Hero boxes of miniatures. 

It took him awhile to find a ranger figure that he liked for Var (a male elf with a bow was easy to find, but Var wore  _blue_  not green, goddamnit), and he wasn’t sure that he would ever use the three other figures in the box and it was fifteen dollars and he was practically broke, but fuck it. Lance was definitely going to get it. “I found one!” He cheered, waving the box under Keith’s nose. 

Keith scowled at him, before snatching the box and looking to see the figures inside. “Oh yeah, he’s cool. You should get this set.”

“Yes! I will. Okay, now I need to get a set of dice,” Lance said, reaching down to grab Keith’s arm. “Let’s go look.”

“Wait! Lance, hold on,” Keith said, resisting Lance’s attempts to pull him towards the register. “I have to put this back.” 

Using the arm not currently being grabbed by Lance, Keith slid the book back onto the upper shelf. 

“Okay, what colors do they have?” Lance asked, more to himself than anyone else, as he dropped down onto the ground in front of the glass case.

“Hey, Kole,” Keith greeted the older man behind the register. “Do you mind opening the case for us?”

The man tossed a set of keys over to Keith. “Have at it, kid.”

“Here,” Keith said, crouching down beside Lance to open the glass case. Once it was unlocked, he slid the glass sideways so that Lance could reach in and pull out different sets of dice. 

“Awesome, man,” Lance leaned forward, studying the dozens of plastic containers filled with the multi-shaped dice that Lance had come to love. “So I think I want to get a blue set, you know, because Var totally has, like, a blue vibe.”

“Because of your eyes?” Keith asked, and Lance whipped his head around to stare at him, watching a red flush creep across Keith’s face. “I mean, because of  _his_ eyes. Obviously. Not that you, ah, don’t have blue eyes. Because you do. And they’re… nice.”

“Thanks,” Lance said slowly. Had Keith just… complimented his eyes? Very poorly, but still. It was almost like Keith was  _flirting_  with him. But that was crazy. Right? “But, um, it’s actually because I named Var after the beach by my home back in Cuba. Varadero Beach. So I guess I just associate him with the ocean.”

“This set kind of looks like water,” Keith said, offering Lance a white and blue swirly set of dice. His movements seemed jerky and rushed, like he was anxious to change subjects.

Lance decided to grant mercy on him.

“Where did you get the inspiration for Akira’s name?” He asked. 

“I just used a random name generator,” Keith said. “I’m garbage at coming up with shit like that.”

“Cool. Cool, cool, cool, cool, cool,” Lance said. “Okay, well I’m gonna get this set,” he said, waving the one that Keith had picked out for him.

“Really?” Keith asked, seeming surprised that Lance was trusting his judgment.

“Really, buddy, these are great. Okay, come on, now I actually have to pay for this stuff. I can already hear my bank account crying.”

Keith pushed himself off the ground before offering a hand down to Lance. “Come on, I’ll pay for lunch.”

“Noooooooooo,” Lance groaned. “That means we have to get back on your bike. I changed my mind. Let’s stay here.”

Keith rolled his eyes, and Lance suddenly realized that he was still holding Keith’s hand. He let go, shoving his hands into his pockets. “Alright, fine, Mullet-man. Let’s go.”

< < < > > >

“Midterms are  _literally_ killing me,” Lance groaned, pushing his laptop away from him and dropping his head down onto the table in front of him. 

“Normally, I’d call you an overdramatic crybaby, but… if I have to look anymore diagrams of the human body I’m going to scream,” Katie agreed. “I don’t even know why I have to take Bio 2. It’s not relevant to my field of study.”

“Tell that to the foreign language requirement,” Keith agreed. “Since the school doesn’t offer Korean, they’re still making me take one.”

“That sucks,” Katie agreed. “What are you taking?”

“Spanish. I thought it would be the easiest. But apparently my professor hates me,” Keith said, making Lance’s head snap back up.

“Keith, buddy, my man. You do realize that you are currently sitting across from a native Spanish speaker, right? I could totally help you,” Lance offerened, waving his arms around wildly. “Spanish is, like, my area of expertise.”

“You are a lifesaver,” Keith said solemnly, as he slid an open notebook across the table towards Lance. “Can you understand any of this?”

< < < > > >

The next day, Keith was waiting for Lance at their usual table in the Bistro. Lance had promised he would help him study for his Spanish midterm, and in return, Keith had agreed to quiz Lance on… well, honestly, Keith wasn’t sure what he had agreed to quiz Lance on because Lance started babbling on about what they were learning in Advanced Chem and Keith had pretty much tuned him out. 

Keith glanced down at his phone. Lance should be getting here any minute. Not that he was late. Keith had just shown up early to grab their table and order coffees and bagels for them (black coffee and a sesame bagel for himself, mocha frappuccino and a cinnamon crunch bagel for Lance). 

Keith reached down into his backpack and pulled out his notes in an effort to keep his hands busy. He was just about to grab his phone again to check the time when an unfamiliar voice startled him into dropping his phone back onto the table.

“Hey, Lance,” the female voice crooned (yes!  _Crooned_ ). “It’s great to see you outside of class.”

“Oh, hey, Nyma,” Lance greeted, and Keith risked turning himself slightly in his seat so that he could see the pair out of the corner of his eye without looking like he was eavesdropping. “Yeah, I’m actually on my way to meet someone to study so…”

“You know,” the girl - Nyma - continued, reaching forward to place one of her hands on Lance’s arm. Her skin was a few shades darker than Lance’s own, her hair a long honey-blonde. “I kept waiting for you to call me, but I guess you lost my number,” she pouted, pursing her full lipgloss-shiny pink lips.

Lance frowned, his eyebrows drawn in. “You gave me your number so we could finish our Chemistry lab. Which we finished. In class.” 

“Exactly,” she teased, “you are  _too_ cute. Here, let me give you my number again. Make sure to actually  _use_ it this time.”

Keith bit his lip, wondering if he should go over and say something. Lance was looking incredibly uncomfortable by her presence, and Keith thought that he saw his blue gaze flickering over in Keith’s direction a few times while Nyma was speaking. 

“Listen, Nyma, I’m… really flattered. But I’m not interested.” Lance said, and Keith felt his heart literally stop beating in his chest. Because when on Earth was Lance “Self-Proclaimed Lady Killer, Master Of Flirting” Álvarez not interested in getting a hot girl’s number? Was it because he was interested in someone else? If he was, then it was probably Allura. After all, Lance’s character had flirted with hers in-game for awhile. And sure, he had toned that down lately, but maybe it was because he was trying to be sensitive of Allura’s feelings…

And, anyways, why did Keith care so much about who Lance flirted with. Lance was allowed to like Allura if he wanted to, just like he could take this girl’s number if he wanted to. It really wasn’t any of Keith’s business.

Except… except the thought of Lance taking that girl’s number or asking Allura to go to the movies with him was making Keith feel sick. In fact, it was almost making him feel  _jealous_  which was ridiculous because why would he get jealous over Lance, of all people? Because Lance was annoying and obnoxious and over the top. Nothing like the ideal partner that Keith had always imagined himself to be waiting for. 

“Lance, you can stop playing hard to get,” Nyma was saying, drawing Keith’s attention back to their conversation. “It’s really not a good look for you.”

Lance scowled at her, “I’m not playing anything, Nyma. I really am here to meet someone, so would you please get out of my way.” As he finished speaking, Lance shrugged Nyma’s hand off his arm and moved to step around her.

The blonde girl openly gaped at him as he brushed her off, and Keith felt satisfaction swell in his stomach at the determined look on Lance’s face. 

“I’ll see you in class on Tuesday if you change your mind,” the girl said snottily, spinning on her heel to beat a hasty retreat from the Bistro. 

“Sorry I’m late,” Lance apologized, as he slid into the seat across from Keith. “I ran into this girl I know from class.”

“You’re fine,” Keith said, taking in Lance’s slightly flushed appearance (whether it was from embarrassment or anger, he couldn’t tell). “Is everything alright?”

“It’s fine,” Lance said, giving him a wide grin that looked a little forced. “Anyways, let’s get started,” Lance said, rubbing his hands together, “we have midterms to pass.”

< < < > > >

“I’m screwed,” Keith announced to Shiro later that day, after his study session with Lance finished. 

Shiro raised an unimpressed eyebrow at him, pausing with his pencil over the sheet of complicated math equations in front of him. “Why are you screwed?” He asked.

Keith moved further into Shiro’s off-campus apartment and sunk into the seat across from Shiro at the tiny two-person dining table. Mentally, he retraced the earlier events of the day. How he kept getting distracted from his conjugation work by the sound of Spanish words slipping out of Lance’s mouth, how he found his eyes tracing the shape of Lance’s lips as they chewed on his pen, how Lance’s foot brushed against his underneath the table. 

“I like Lance,” Keith declared, “and it’s terrible.”

“Why is that terrible?” Shiro asked, with a small chuckle. “Lance is a good guy. It’s nice to see the two of you getting along.” 

“No, Shiro, you don’t get it. I  _like_ him. In a more-than-friends kind of way,” Keith said, feeling a steady flush creep across his face. 

“So ask him out,” Shiro said, “sometimes you just have to jump, Keith.”

“I know that,” Keith retorted. “I’m great at taking the jump. Just… not with this. What if he says no? What if he doesn’t want to be friends anymore?”

“Do you really think that Lance would do that to you?” Shiro asked, sounding genuinely concerned now. 

“No,” Keith admitted. “I think that even if he doesn’t like me, he would still be nice about it.” 

“See, so it’s not so horrible then,” Shiro said. “You know, Lance would be lucky to have you.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “You have to say that. You’re my brother.”

“But that doesn’t mean that it’s not true,” Shiro countered. 

“What am I going to do?” Keith asked. “What would you do?”

“Honestly,” Shiro huffed out a laugh, “I’m not sure that I’m the best guy to take relationship advice from.”

“But you’re all I’ve got. So come on, hit me with it,” 

“Honestly, I think you should talk to him about it. You never know, he might surprise you,” Shiro said, patting Keith’s shoulder. 

And maybe Lance would surprise him, but Keith wasn’t so sure.

< < < > > >

“Okay, roll for perception,” Matt told Keith and Lance a few days later, once everyone was gathered in the lounge for Game Night. 

Keith and Lance picked up their dice simultaneously.

“First roll with my new dice,” Lance muttered, “these suckers better be lucky. And it they aren’t, I’m blaming you, Keith.”

“Hey!” Keith exclaimed, “why me?”

“Because,” Lance said like it was obvious, “you’re the one that picked them out.” Rolling his eyes at Keith, Lance tossed his new blue dice across the table. 

“Yes! Natural seventeen! Plus four, so that makes it a twenty-one,” Lance said, grinning like a madman.

Across the table from him, Keith groaned. “Natural two.”

“Okay, so Akira gets distracted by one of the market stalls selling knives and other expensive weaponry, but Var sees two Galra soldiers cutting through the market in your direction. They haven’t spotted you yet, but they definitely seem to be looking for someone specific. What do you want to do?”

“We never should have split the party,” Keith mourned. Which, okay, in hindsight was probably a pretty stupid idea. But they really needed an ancient elven artifact that was rumored to be for sale at one of these market stalls so Akira and Var had volunteered themselves to go look for it while the rest of the party tried to break in to a local Galra fortress in an attempt to find Pidge’s missing brother. Once Akira and Var found the artifact, they were supposed to use it to attack the fortress from the opposite side.

But now they were exposed in the marketplace without any of their tanks to protect them. 

“Okay so first of all, is there anywhere that I can see to hide?” Lance asked Matt.

“There are a few small alleyways branching off from the main stretch of the marketplace,” Matt replied, “they seem to have some of the shadier stalls, products that aren’t strictly legal.”

“Okay, I grab Akira and pull him into one of the alleyways with me, hissing ‘two Galra soldiers coming our way’ under my breath,” Lance narrated. 

“‘What are we going to do? They’ll see us.’” Keith replied. “I can make a stealth check and possibly avoid detection but your stealth score might not be high enough to avoid detection,” Keith added out of character.

Lance wanted to argue with him, but Keith was right and they both knew it. 

“We need some other way to avoid their detection. Like, a distraction or something.” Lance said, as he tried to come up with a solution.

“Come on, guys, what do you want to do? You don’t have much time,” Matt said, heightening the tension in the room. 

“Okay, Var looks at Akira as says ‘just go with it’ and then I kiss him,” Lance blurted out, before mentally smacking himself in the face.

“ _What?_ ” Keith screeched, similar sentiments echoing from around the table.

“Um, yeah, public displays of affection freak people out. Haven’t you ever seen  _Captain America: The Winter Soldier_?” Lance babbled, feeling his face flushing under the weight of the stares from six pairs of eyes. “When Cap and Black Widow are totally about to be found out so they… you know what, it doesn’t matter.”

He isn’t sure, but he thinks that Shiro is laughing. 

“Um, okay, sure,” Matt said, obviously trying to retake control of the situation. “You lean down and kiss Akira, keeping you eye peaked open. Sure enough, the two Galra guards walk directly past you, shooting you a glance before quickly looking away.”

Lance drummed his fingers against the armrest of his chair, keeping his gaze steadily on Matt, not sure what he would see if he turned to face Keith.

“My eyes turn yellow,” Keith said. “As Var pulls away, he sees that Akira’s eyes briefly flash yellow.”

Now, Lance really did  turn to face Keith, who was cherry-red (the same color as his shirt, really) but he held Lance’s gaze with his own. 

“‘Who are you?’” Lance whispered, but he isn’t sure if it was Var asking Akira, or Lance asking Keith. 

It was getting hard to tell the difference sometimes.

< < < > > >

“Nope,” Lance said to Hunk once they were alone in their dorm room. “I’m not talking about it.”

“Dude,” Hunk said. “Just admit it. You’ve totally got it bad for Keith. That’s why you’ve been acting so weird lately. And don’t say that you haven’t been, because Katie and I have both noticed.”

“It’s not… I mean… you’re both crazy,” Lance sputtered. 

Hunk rolled his eyes. “We’re not crazy. But you might be. Did you even talk to him after the session tonight.”

Lance groaned. “No,” he admitted quietly. “Does that make me a bad person?”

“It makes you a confusing person,” Hunk said. “You’re probably giving the poor guy lots of mixed signals.”

“He probably doesn’t even care,” Lance countered, hating the sinking feeling in his gut, “after all, I’m just the annoying guy who joined his game group and then weaseled his way into all the other aspects of his life.” 

“Lance, buddy, is that really what you think?” Hunk asked, sounding sad.

Lance kept his gaze firmly rooted to his hands. “I don’t know. Maybe. Sometimes. Like, I just started making him tag along for stuff or, like, showing up when I wasn’t invited like that time I had pizza with him and Shiro, or -” Lance babbled, until Hunk cut him off.

“You had pizza with him and Shiro?” Hunk asked.

“Oh, yeah, I ran into them while you and Pidge were working on your project together and I was just chatting with Keith while I waited for my pizza to get done but Shiro invited me to stay, and I did, but, like, Keith isn’t the one who invited me to stay so maybe he didn’t actually want me there.”

“Lance. Breathe. Who willingly decided to stay for movie night when Matt had to go home early?” Hunk asked, even though Lance was perfectly aware that he already knew the answer.

“Keith did,” Lance said, letting out a breath of air. “And Keith invited me to go to Game Emporium with him. And Keith asked to study with me at the Bistro the other day.”

“See, Keith enjoys your company. In fact, he actively seems to seek it out. You’re overthinking this, man,” Hunk said, patting Lance’s back in an effort to comfort him. 

Lance reached up and dragged his hands down his face, rubbing at his eyes. “Yeah. Okay. I’m overthinking this.”

“Talk to Keith, man,” Hunk said, grabbing Lance’s phone from his nightstand and placing it on Lance’s knee. 

< < < > > >

Keith was sitting alone in his dorm room when his phone screen lit up, shocking him out of his attempt to channel his frustration into kicking ass on Super Smash Bros. He paused the game, fumbling for his phone and unlocking it without looking at his home screen. He quickly tapped on his texting app, pulling it open, relieved to see Lance’s name at the top of his chat list, the blue bubble telling him he had a new message next to the truly awful selfie Lance had taken on his phone to be his contact photo. 

**FROM: LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

hey can we talk?????

**TO: LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

Yeah.

**TO:** **LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

When?

**FROM: LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

right now?

**TO: LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

Sure.

**FROM: LANCE (FROM MONSTERS AND MANA)**

was hoping you’d say that. i’m outside

Keith slipped his phone into his back pocket, grabbing his jacket off the floor and pulling it on before slipping out of his dorm room. 

He could feel his heart pounding, loud enough that he was sure everyone he passed in the hallways could hear it. It seemed to take forever to reach the front door of his dorm building, and when he finally got there, Keith stopped and stared at the blue door. 

He knew that Lance was on the other side, and his emotions were at war inside of him trying to decide if he was more excited or nervous about what Lance would say. Either Lance would say that he had just been joking earlier and he hoped Keith wouldn’t be weird about it, or he would say that he meant it.

Taking a deep breath to steel himself, Keith reached up and grabbed the handle of the door, pulling it open and stepping into the cool night air. 

Sure enough, Lance was standing outside. He looked… well, honestly, he looked terrible. He was wearing a pair of blue pajama pants and a grey long sleeve shirt with the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His fingers were tapping restlessly on his thigh. It was the least put-together that Keith had ever seen him.

When the sound of footsteps alerted Lance to Keith’s presence, his head snapped up. “Hey,” he said, his voice low and rough.

“Hey,” Keith said, not sure what else to say, as he took a few steps closer to Lance. He shoved his own hands into the pockets of his red jacket, unsure what else to do with them. 

“I, uh, I wanted to talk to you,” Lance started, “and I should have talked to you after the session but instead I just left which was, like, a total dick move and I’m really sorry about that.”

“What did you… what did you want to say?” Keith asked.  _Please don’t say it was a joke_.  _Please don’t say it was a joke_. 

“I just…” Lance let out a huff of air that might have been some kind of laugh. “I don’t know why this is so hard.”

“Lance” Keith said softly, “just say it.”  _Whatever it is, just say it_.

An uncertain look crossed Lance’s face and then he was stepping closer, closing the distance between them. His hands came up and gripped the front of Keith’s jacket. He was so close that Keith could see tiny freckles scattered across his nose, even in the pale yellow light from the lights on either side of the dorm building’s door.

Lance studied Keith’s expression, seemingly searching for something in his gaze. “I really,  _really_ want to kiss you, Keith,” Lance whispered, his words ghosting across Keith’s lips.

Keith didn’t respond immediately, instead, he reached up and wrapped his arms around Lance’s neck. Lance’s hair was soft where it brushed against his knuckles. “So do it,” he whispered. 

Lance bent his head the rest of the way down, nudging at Keith lightly with his nose until Keith let his eyelids flutter shut. 

He felt a slight warm pressure against his lips. It’s brief and chaste and sweet and  _there_ before it vanishes completely.

Keith blinked his eyes open, finding Lance’s blue eyes looking back at him. 

Lance opened his mouth to say something, but what it was going to be, Keith never found out. Instead, Keith used his hands, which were still resting against the back of Lance’s neck, to pull Lance back down and pressed their lips together again. 

This time is different, there’s more. More teeth. More pressure. More more more more more. 

It feels like Lance’s hands are going to burn a hole through his jacket, but then Lance let go of his death grip on the lapels to reach around Keith’s waist instead. 

They kiss until Keith felt dizzy and breathless and he didn’t want to pull away from Lance, but he had to because unfortunately the need for oxygen was still very much a thing. 

But Lance didn’t go far, instead of pulling away completely, he let his forehead drop down to rest against Keith’s. All Keith can see is  _blue_ and it feels like swimming and drowning at the same time.

“Do you want to come inside?” Keith asked, knowing they look ridiculous standing on the sidewalk in front of Garrison Hall, both red-faced and panting. Lance in his pajamas.  

“God yes,” Lance breathed, pressing another quick kiss to Keith’s lips and momentarily distracting him from his search for his keycard. 

Keith can feel Lance’s grin against his lips, and he pulled just far enough away to ask “What’s so funny?”

“This is, just, so much better in real life,” Lance said, grinning so wide it must be hurting his face. “I can’t believe our characters got to do this before we did.” 

“And whose fault is that?” Keith teased, releasing his death grip on Lance’s neck to run his fingers down the other boy’s shoulders and arms until… there. Keith tentatively wrapped one of his hands around Lance’s own. 

Lance turned his palm over, lacing their fingers together. “We could have been doing this all semester,” he mourned, but the grin never faded from his face. 

“Nah,” Keith said, tugging Lance back in the direction of his dorm’s front door. “I didn’t realize I liked you until recently,” he admitted. 

“What was the deciding factor?” Lance asked, sounding curious. 

“Do you remember that day when you met me in the Bistro to study?” Keith asked, as he led Lance through the maze-like hallways.

“For your Spanish midterm? Sure.”

“Well, I… um… kinda overheard the conversation between you and Nyma, and it just made me realize that I didn’t  _want_ you to take that girl’s number. And then you obviously weren’t interested in her, so I thought that meant you liked someone else,”

“I did like someone else,” Lance said softly. “I liked you.” 

“Well I didn’t know that then,” Keith said. “That’s how I knew that I liked you.” He could feel a steady red flush spreading across his cheeks as he finished speaking.

“Do you want to know how I realized that I liked you?” Lance asked.

“Yes, don’t let me be the only cheesy one here,” Keith agreed, turning down the flight of stairs that led to the lower level of the dorm. 

“It was during the movie night,” Lance said. “We were just sitting on the couch together, and it was just really nice. And before that, when I bumped into you and Shiro at the pizza place. I thought you were on a date. I’m really glad that you weren’t on a date.” 

Keith stopped in front of his dorm room’s door, pulling Lance in closer to him. “Do you want to come inside?” Keith asked again, echoing his words from earlier.

Lance reached around him to grab the door handle. “Yes, please,” he said, before pressing another soft kiss to Keith’s lips.

< < < > > >

Lance woke up the next morning smiling and giddy and deliriously happy. He and Keith had fallen asleep inbetween making out and some weird fantasy movie that Keith swore up and down was a classic. 

His face was pressed up against the side of Keith’s pillow, and Lance could feel Keith’s arm across his stomach, could feel tuffs of Keith’s hair tickling against his nose.

“I told you that you drool,” Keith whispered, making Lance start. He hadn’t realized that the other boy was awake. 

And Lance wanted to protest, but instead he just nuzzled his nose down into Keith’s hair, taking in the scent of sweat and boy and Keith. “I can’t believe you made me miss another night of my skin routine,” Lance countered.

“I have yet to see proof of this skin care routine. I don’t believe it exists,” Keith muttered, turning over so that he was facing Lance on the pillow. 

Lance reached out with the free arm not currently trapped underneath Keith’s body, letting it drape across Keith’s waist. 

“We should get up,” Lance said. 

“It’s Saturday,” Keith replied, closing his eyes.

“But if we get up we can have our first date,” Lance said, tracing circles onto Keith’s back through the Monsters and Mana t-shirt he had worn to bed (“like a total nerd” Lance had told him the night before when Keith came back from the bathroom wearing it and matching pajama bottoms). 

“Wasn’t the trip to Game Emporium technically our first date?” Keith asked, making Lance scoff.

“Keith, buddy, everyone knows that you kiss at the end of a first date. If there was no kissing, it doesn’t count. Plus, I’m pretty sure that both parties have to be  _aware_  that it’s a date.”

“But it was a good first date,” Keith pouted.

“It was a good first date,” Lance agreed. “But now I get to plan one that’s, like, all romantic and shit.”

Keith rolled his eyes. “Fine, but I want breakfast in bed. I have Poptarts over on top of my mini fridge.”

Lance let out an annoyed huff of air, but he slipped his arm out from underneath Keith to cross the room to the mini fridge. Sure enough, there was an open box of cookies and cream Poptarts sitting on top of it (along with the much healthier breakfast option of RXBAR power bars). 

Lance picked up the box of Poptarts and was in the process of pulling out two of the foil-wrapped pastries (feeling Keith’s eyes on him from his place in bed across the room) when Lance heard the distinct sound of a key sliding into the lock on Keith’s door. 

He glanced over at Keith, his eyes wide. There was only one possible person that Keith would have given his key to…

Keith looked terrified, his eyes wide and his mouth open in shock (which looked adorable with his bedhead because the mullet was definitely  _not_ safe from that… and that’s a train of thought for another time). “Shit, shit, shit,” Keith hissed, leaping off of his bed, but he doesn’t get much farther than his nightstand before the door swings open.

And Lance swallowed down the embarrassment rapidly rising in him because Takashi Shirogane was standing in the doorway. 

“Hey Kei-” Shiro was saying, but he fell silent when his eyes landed on Lance. “Oh, um, hi, Lance.” Shiro said instead, having the good grace to  _at least_ look slightly embarrassed. “I didn’t know you were here.”

“I gave you that key for emergencies,” Keith said, storming over to his brother, “is this an emergency?”

“Um… no?” Shiro offered weakly. 

Keith groaned, dropping his head into his hands as if he could hide the fact that his face was absolutely  _burning_. 

Lance was acutely aware of the fact that he was probably a similar shade of red, which was stupid because  _nothing_  had happened between Keith and himself last night. At least, nothing that warranted turning  _this_ red. But as if just being in Keith’s dorm room first thing in the morning wasn’t damning enough, they were both in their pajamas!

“Right. I was just coming to check on you after last night,” Shiro said, “but obviously you’re fine, so I’ll leave you two crazy kids to it. And I’ll knock next time,” Shiro promised as he stepped back out into the hallway.

“B-bye, Shiro,” Lance called, having regained enough control of his voice and body to at least give the older man a small wave before Keith slammed the door in his face.

Keith pressed his face into the wood of the door, and Lance couldn’t help the laughter that bubbled out of him. “Oh my God,” he whispered. 

Keith turned around to glare at him. “Do you think that this is funny?” He snapped. “Do you know how many lectures he’s going to give me now? And let me tell you, they’re lectures that I’m sure I don’t need to be hearing from my big brother  _of all people_.”

“No, no,” Lance said, holding up his hands in surrender, even as tears of laughter streamed down his face. “It isn’t funny. I’m sorry.”

Keith crossed the room over to him, snatching the box of Poptarts from his hand. “It’s not funny,” he said seriously.

“Right,” Lance agreed, struggling to get ahold of himself. “It absolutely is not funny.” Lance reached up, steadying himself using Keith’s shoulder, and the movement is enough to bring a tender smile back onto Keith’s face.

“Maybe it's a little funny,” Keith allowed, reaching over to brush the tears of laughter from Lance’s cheeks. 

His hand was warm against Lance’s face, and all Lance could do was wonder how he had gotten so lucky.

< < < > > >

“‘I don’t care what you are’ Var whispers, gently placing a hand on Akira’s cheek. ‘That’s not important,’” Lance naratated.

“‘How can you say that?’” Keith responded, “‘I come from the same monsters that destroyed your homeland, that killed your people. How can you say that it isn’t important?’” 

“‘Because I know you, Akira, and just because we know you have Galra blood running through your veins today doesn’t mean you’re different than the person you were yesterday-’”

“Okay, seriously,” Katie interrupted, wrinkling her nose. “We already have to deal with you guys being all mushy in real life. We don’t need it bleeding over into the game, too.”

Lance bit his lip to keep from grinning, and he could tell that across the table from him Keith was doing the same.

“Shut up, Katie,” Matt scolded. “This is a heart wrenching moment between two characters. This is all I’ve ever wanted from this campaign.” He sounded a little emotional as he said it, and Lance glanced over at Matt to see that he was looking around at his players with a proud look in his eye.

Lance turned his attention back to Keith, reaching his leg out underneath the table until his foot was resting right against Keith’s. He tapped it lightly against Keith’s combat-boot clad foot, who grinned wickedly as he batted at Lance’s foot playfully with his own.

Keeping his eyes on Keith, Lance began to once again narrate his character’s actions. “‘You have to stay with the team, Akira. We still need you.’”

“‘I’m not going anywhere,’” Keith said. “‘At least, not without you.’”

Lance pressed down softly against Keith’s toes underneath the table. A silent, unspoken message. For now, they were both settling into the relationship. It was too soon to think about summer vacation, when Lance would be returning to Cuba and Keith would be staying on-campus to work. It was too soon to say the three words that had been rolling around in Lance’s head since the day he had stood outside of Keith’s dorm. But it wasn’t too soon for silent messages passed through the pressing of feet underneath the gaming table while their friends continued on oblivious. And for now, that was enough.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! Come find me on twitter @slowklancing to cry about Voltron with me, see sneak peeks of upcoming writing projects, or participate in polls about the kind of content you want to see! Happy Julance everyone!
> 
> By the way, if anyone was curious, the romance novel that Keith was reading is And Then She Fell by Stephanie Laurens!


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